Social Media and E-commerce Platform Accountability, Detection and Reporting Measures for Sales of Illegal Health Products via Live-streaming

Mr Shawn Loh asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) to what extent are social media and e-commerce platforms held accountable for the sale of unregulated or illegal health products conducted via live streaming on their platforms; and (b) whether the Ministry will consider working with platforms to detect and report prohibited health and medical marketing claims during live broadcasts.

Commercial advertising in Singapore is self-regulated through the Singapore Code of Advertising Practice (SCAP) administered by the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (ASAS). SCAP applies to all advertisements for goods and services appearing across all media. While compliance is voluntary, SCAP complements existing laws. When an advertisement breaches the law, such as in the promotion of illegal health products, ASAS refers it to the relevant authority, namely the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) in this instance.

HSA regulates the sale, supply and advertising of health products, including activities conducted through e-commerce and social media platforms. These regulatory requirements apply regardless of whether products are promoted through online listings, social media posts or live-streaming.

HSA conducts online surveillance and works closely with e-commerce and social media platforms to detect and remove illegal health product listings and non-compliant promotional content. HSA has also increasingly used technology, including automated tools, to support faster detection. In 2025, HSA detected and removed 2,358 listings of illegal health products from local e-commerce and social media platforms. Platforms have generally been responsive to HSA's requests to remove offending content and HSA takes enforcement action against sellers and advertisers where warranted.

Live-streaming presents additional enforcement challenges because the content is real-time and transient. HSA will continue to work with platforms to strengthen their capabilities to detect, report and remove illegal health product sales and prohibited or misleading health and medical claims, including those made during live broadcasts.