Singapore’s Online Safety Commission: What It Does and How to Use It
Singapore's Online Safety Commission helps victims of online harms like harassment, doxxing and intimate image abuse get directions to platforms and perpetrators, without going to court.
By Editorial Team
9 min read
The Online Safety Commission in Singapore is a government agency, set up under the Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Act 2025, that helps victims of certain online harms. It began operating in 2026. If you’re a victim of harms such as online harassment, doxxing, online stalking, intimate image abuse or image-based child abuse, you can report to the commission and ask it to issue directions to the platform or the person responsible, for example to take content down, without starting court proceedings.
This guide explains what the commission does, what it covers, how it fits with POHA and the Protection from Harassment Court, and what to do first. We’re a reputation management firm operated from Singapore, not a law firm, so this is general information. If you’re in danger, call 999 or SMS 70999.
Your safety comes first
The commission is designed to deal with harmful content. It isn’t an emergency service. Before you think about any report, check whether you’re safe right now.
- If someone has threatened you, or knows where you live and is making threats, call 999 or SMS 70999.
- If you’re struggling emotionally, call Samaritans of Singapore on 1767 or National Mindline on 1771. Both are available around the clock.
- If you want to talk to someone about online harms specifically, SHECARES runs a helpline, counseling and free legal clinics for victims.
Our help resources page lists these and other Singapore services with their contact details.
What the Online Safety Commission is
Parliament passed the Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Act in 2025. It created the Online Safety Commission as a dedicated agency for victims of online harms, so that people don’t have to rely only on platform reporting tools or go to court to get harmful content dealt with.
The commission’s role is practical: it receives reports from victims, assesses them, and where the legal test is met, it can issue directions. Directions can be aimed at online platforms and services, at the person who posted the content, or at others involved. In general terms, they can require content to be taken down or restricted, stop someone from continuing the harmful conduct, or restrict accounts that are being used to cause harm.
The Act also sets out consequences for failing to comply with a direction, and it strengthens victims’ ability to take their own legal action. We haven’t set out those details here; check the commission’s official website and speak to a lawyer if you’re considering that step.
Which online harms it covers
The Act lists specific types of online harm rather than covering everything upsetting online. Based on what the commission and the Act describe, the harms include:
| Harm | What it generally means |
|---|---|
| Online harassment | Threatening, abusive or insulting communications online that are likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress |
| Doxxing | Publishing someone’s identifying or personal details, such as their address or phone number, in a way that harasses or endangers them |
| Online stalking | A course of conduct online, such as repeated contact or monitoring, that causes fear or distress |
| Intimate image abuse | Sharing, or threatening to share, intimate images of someone without consent, including fake or manipulated images |
| Image-based child abuse | Sexual or abusive images of children |
| Impersonation and misuse of identity | Online accounts or content falsely presented as being you, or misusing your likeness |
The Act covers a wider list of harms than the core ones above, and not every harm may be handled in the same way or from the same date. Check the commission’s official website, osc.gov.sg, for which harms it currently accepts reports on and what each one requires.
How to seek help from the commission
We won’t set out form fields or response times, because the commission’s procedures are new and may change. The general approach looks like this:
- Record the harm. For each post, message or account, note the link, the platform, the account name and the date and time. Screenshots showing the account name and URL help, except for sexual images of minors, which you should only report, never save.
- Report it to the platform. Use the platform’s own reporting tool for harassment, private information, impersonation or intimate images. For some harms, the commission may expect you to have tried this first; for others, particularly the most serious ones, it may not. Check its website for the harm you’re dealing with.
- Make a report to the Online Safety Commission. Use the official site, osc.gov.sg, typed into your browser yourself. Describe what happened, which harm it falls under, and the links involved. Include any platform report outcome or reference.
- Say what you need. Be clear whether you want content removed, contact stopped, or an account restricted. The commission decides what directions, if any, to issue.
- Keep records of everything. Save any references and correspondence. They’re useful if you later go to the police, a lawyer or the court.
If the harm is also a crime, such as threats, stalking or sharing intimate images, you can make a police report too. Our guide to making a police report in Singapore explains how.
How it fits with POHA and the Protection from Harassment Court
The commission doesn’t replace the Protection from Harassment Act. It adds another route alongside it, and many people will use more than one.
| Online Safety Commission | POHA and the Protection from Harassment Court | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A government agency that receives reports and issues directions | A law with criminal offenses and civil remedies, and a specialist court within the State Courts |
| Covers | Specific online harms listed in the 2025 Act | Harassment, stalking, doxxing and false statements, online and offline |
| How you use it | Report to the commission | Apply to the court, or report offenses to the police |
| What you can get | Directions to platforms, perpetrators and others | Protection orders, expedited orders, false statement orders and damages |
| Offline conduct | Not its focus | Covered |
If harassment is happening both online and in person, or you want a court order with the force of law behind it, POHA is likely to be part of your plan. Our guide to POHA in Singapore explains protection orders and the court process. If your details have been posted, our guide to doxxing in Singapore covers the practical steps in order. Using the commission doesn’t stop you from applying to court later, but ask a lawyer how the two routes interact for your situation.
Not sure where to start?
Get a free audit of your search results and review profiles, with a prioritized fix list.
Get a free auditA worked example
This is an illustrative scenario, not a real client. Wei Ling, a nurse in Tampines, ends a relationship. A few weeks later, an account using her photos appears on a social platform, posting her workplace and suggestive captions, and her ex messages her from new accounts after she blocks him.
- Safety first. Because the posts name her workplace, she tells her manager and makes a police report.
- Evidence. She keeps a simple log of each account, link and date, with screenshots showing the account names.
- Platform reports. She reports the fake account as impersonation and the posts as sharing private information.
- The commission. When the account stays up and new ones appear, she reports to the Online Safety Commission under the relevant harms, with her log and the platform report references.
- Legal advice. At a SHECARES legal clinic, a volunteer lawyer explains that she could also apply for a POHA protection order against her ex, because the contact is persistent and personal.
None of these routes comes with a certain result or timeline. But Wei Ling has protected herself first, built a clear record and used the routes designed for each part of the problem.
What the commission won’t do
It helps to be clear about the limits, so you pick the right tool.
- It isn’t for ordinary criticism. A harsh but honest review of your business, or a rude comment, is unlikely to meet the threshold for an online harm.
- It isn’t a defamation court. If someone has made false claims that damage your reputation, see our guide to Singapore defamation law and talk to a lawyer.
- It isn’t an emergency service. For immediate danger, call 999.
- It won’t clean up search results by itself. Content removed from a platform can still appear in search results for a while, until search engines recrawl the page.
Common mistakes
- Deleting evidence before reporting. Block and report, but keep a record first, apart from sexual images of minors.
- Retaliating. Posting the other person’s details or abusing them back can expose you to POHA or to a report yourself.
- Using a search ad to find the commission. Type osc.gov.sg yourself. Scammers set up look-alike help sites.
- Relying on one route. Platform reports, the commission, the police and the court can all play a part.
- Paying anyone who promises certain removal. No private firm controls what the commission, a platform or a court will decide.
After the content comes down
Once harmful content has been taken down, traces can remain: copies on other sites, reposts, or search results that still show old titles and snippets. Request removal from any site that copied the content, and use search engines’ tools for outdated or removed pages. Our guide on removing intimate images shared without consent covers those requests for image abuse specifically.
If harmful results still appear when people search your name, our content removal service can look at what can realistically be removed or corrected, and we’ll tell you honestly where the limits are.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Online Safety Commission in Singapore?
It’s a government agency set up under the Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Act 2025, which began operating in 2026. Victims of certain online harms, such as online harassment, doxxing, online stalking and intimate image abuse, can report to it and seek directions to platforms or perpetrators.
Do I need a lawyer to report to the Online Safety Commission?
No. The commission is designed so victims can report directly. Legal advice still helps if you’re also considering a POHA application, a police report or a claim in court, and free legal clinics such as those run by SHECARES and the Law Society’s pro bono services can help.
Do I have to report to the platform first?
It depends on the harm. For some harms the commission may expect you to have reported to the platform first; for others, especially the most serious, it may not. Check the commission’s official website for the harm you’re reporting.
Is the Online Safety Commission the same as POHA?
No. POHA is the Protection from Harassment Act, a law with criminal offenses and court remedies heard in the Protection from Harassment Court. The commission is a separate agency under a 2025 law that can issue directions without court proceedings. You can use both.
Can the commission remove a bad review of my business?
Usually not. Honest criticism of a business is unlikely to count as an online harm under the Act. For reviews that break a platform’s rules, report them to the platform, and for false and damaging claims, speak to a lawyer about defamation.
