Singapore's Online Safety Commission: What You Can Report Now, and What Still Goes Elsewhere

2026-10-19 · Philip Choo · AI9OS

Someone has posted your home address under an angry video. A stranger keeps messaging you from new accounts every time you block one. A photo you never agreed to share is going round a group chat.

Until this year, your choices in Singapore were the platform's report button, a police report, or the Protection from Harassment Court. Since 29 June 2026 there is a fourth: the Online Safety Commission (OSC), set up under the Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Act 2025. Reporting to it is free, and it is done online at report.osc.gov.sg.

This post explains what the OSC handles today, what order to do things in, and what it cannot do for you yet.

The five harms it handles now

The OSC started with five kinds of online harm:

1. Online harassment
2. Doxxing (publishing someone's personal information to harass or endanger them)
3. Online stalking
4. Intimate image abuse (an intimate image of you shared without your consent)
5. Image-based child abuse (where the person shown is, or looks, under 16)

In its first two months the OSC received more than 500 reports. Doxxing was the largest group, at 44 per cent, followed by harassment at 38 per cent. About 17 per cent of reports came from people under 18 (OSC factsheet, 17 September 2026).

Which ones go straight to the OSC

The order matters, and it is different for different harms.

Doxxing, intimate image abuse and image-based child abuse: go straight to the OSC. You do not need to report to the platform first.

Harassment and stalking: report to the platform first. If the platform has not responded, or its response is inadequate, after 24 hours, you can then report to the OSC.

In every case, save the evidence before anything is taken down: screenshots with the link, the account name, the date and time showing. A takedown removes the harm and the evidence at the same moment.

Who can report

Under section 22 of the Act, you can report if you are a Singapore citizen, a permanent resident or on a long-term pass. A parent can report for a child under 18, and you can authorise someone to report for you.

What the OSC can do

The OSC can direct the person who posted, a group's administrator, or the platform to take content down or stop it spreading. Ignoring a direction is an offence.

If the account is anonymous, the Act also lets a victim apply in writing for the poster's identity to be disclosed (section 53). There are conditions: you need a reasonable suspicion, a purpose the law recognises, and you must pay a fee. You must apply within 12 months, and misusing the information you get is itself an offence, with a fine of up to $20,000, up to 12 months' jail, or both.

Separately, from 29 June 2026 the five harms are also statutory torts: you can sue the person responsible in court, and you do not have to report to the OSC first.

What it cannot handle yet

The Act defines more harms than the OSC currently deals with. Online impersonation (section 15) and inauthentic material abuse (section 16, which covers fake or altered material about you) are written into the law but are not yet in operation. The government has said these and six other harms will be brought in progressively. It has not given dates.

So if someone has set up a fake account in your name today:

• Report it to the platform as impersonation.
• Make a police report if the account is asking people for money or harassing you.
• If the fake account is harassing you, the Protection from Harassment Court is still open to you.
• If it uses an intimate image of you, real or made with AI, that is intimate image abuse, and it goes straight to the OSC.

Check osc.gov.sg before you rely on this list. It will change as the remaining harms come in.

The police are still the police

The OSC deals with online content. It does not replace a police report. If you are threatened with violence, someone is asking you for money to stop sharing an image, or you think you are in danger, call the police first. The OSC report can follow.

A free guide for the whole process

Our free guide, Doxxed, Stalked or Impersonated, walks through the first 24 hours, each of these harms, and where to get support, with an evidence log you can print. No sign-up: download it here.

This is general information about Singapore law as at October 2026, not legal advice about your situation.