The Elections Department (ELD) has removed socio-political website The Online Citizen (TOC) as a political association under the Political Donations Act, which means it is no longer required to declare its annual donations to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Separately, TOC’s operators have also been instructed by the Info-communications Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) that the site must be registered with the IMDA under the Broadcasting (Class Licence) Notification, which comes under the Broadcasting Act.

While this does not affect the content that TOC puts out, registered websites must undertake not to receive funding from foreign sources for the provision, management and/or operation of the website, except for bona fide commercial purposes. Other websites that have registered under this rule include news sites The Independent Singapore and the now-defunct The Middle Ground.