Amos Yee to face two charges over racially divisive posts, indecent communications

Amos Yee, 27, will be charged in a Singapore court on Wednesday, 26 August, over online content that police described as alarming and racially divisive, according to the Singapore Police Force.

Police said on Tuesday, 25 August, that they had received several reports between April and July this year concerning content Yee published online. Investigations were subsequently carried out into the material.

Yee is alleged to have made two blog posts, on 7 April and 11 April. He also uploaded a video to X on 27 May, in which he claimed Singapore's Malay-Muslim and Indian communities faced heavy discrimination from the Chinese majority.

"He also made statements about the government's treatment of these communities and suggested that they should protest against the government," police said.

In a further blog post on 30 June, Yee reportedly claimed children were capable of consenting to sexual acts, and called for the abolition of laws governing the age of consent, according to police.

Police said this followed three other videos Yee had uploaded in 2021, in which he made statements advocating sexual relationships involving children and called for the abolition of laws prohibiting child sexual abuse material.

Over the alleged publication of this content, Yee is to be charged with knowingly attempting to promote feelings of disharmony between racial groups, and with making indecent communications likely to cause alarm.

The charges fall under Section 298A(a) of the Penal Code 1871 and Section 4(1)(b) of the Protection from Harassment Act 2014 (POHA). The former carries a jail term of up to three years, a fine, or both; the latter is punishable under Section 4(2) of POHA with a fine of up to S$5,000.

Police said they issued a disabling direction under the Online Criminal Harms Act on 18 August to remove the video from X. The platform has complied, and the video is no longer available.

For the remaining material, police said they had issued stop communication directions requiring Yee to remove the posts from his personal blog.

"The police take a serious view of acts that threaten racial and religious harmony in Singapore, and of indecent communications, including those which advocate or promote sexual relationships involving children," police said, adding that offenders would be "dealt with swiftly and firmly in accordance with the law".

Background

Yee is already facing separate charges for failing to fulfil his National Service obligations. He left Singapore for the United States in 2016, after having twice been jailed in Singapore for remarks he made about Christians and Muslims.

He was granted asylum in the United States in 2017. He was later charged there with possessing child pornography and grooming a minor, and pleaded guilty in December 2021. He was sentenced to six years' imprisonment.

Yee was granted parole partway through his backdated sentence but was returned to custody after violating its conditions. In November last year, he was detained by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency after his release on parole from the Danville Correctional Center in Illinois.

He was deported to Singapore in March this year and was subsequently charged with three offences under the Enlistment Act for failing to report for National Service, as well as with remaining outside Singapore without a valid exit permit. He was granted bail on those charges and had been due to plead guilty to the enlistment-related offences on 7 September.