SINGAPORE, Jan 3 — A former Reform Party member has apologised to Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, admitting that he had published false statements about the latter’s alleged “extramarital affair”.
In an apology note entitled “Apology and Undertaking”, Thaddeus Thomas said: “I admit that I intended to put up these falsehoods and acknowledge that those statements are false and completely without foundation.”
The apology was first posted on TikTok on December 21, 2023, under the user “thaddeusthomas81”, and on Facebook on December 25, as “Thaddeus Thomas”.
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Thomas continued in his note: “I regret my actions and apologise unreservedly to K. Shanmugam for making the false and libellous statements on my TikTok post. I admit that I received advice and encouragement to put up my false post and regret listening to this advice.”
Thomas also said that he had “intentionally ignored” a letter sent by Shanmugam’s lawyers on August 25 to his Facebook account via Facebook Messenger as he thought that Shanmugam’s team would not be able to identify him.
Thomas said that he only replied to Shanmugam on November 30, after he read in a Straits Times article that the minister had applied for court orders to compel TikTok to disclose user information about him.
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In the note, Thomas also said Shanmugam has “kindly agreed” to his request not to ask for damages despite his “scurrilous allegations”.
Thomas said he would also foot the legal costs incurred by Shanmugam.
TODAY was the first to report on Shanmugam filing a civil lawsuit against social media giant TikTok for failing to assist him in identifying three users who had each allegedly uploaded a video spreading false allegations about him.
On August 13, a TikTok user with the username “@trusted.selller” allegedly uploaded a video that contained two images with the caption “GIVE HIM A DEFAMATION SUIT SISTER #MINISTER #SG #VIRAL #EXWIFE”.
The images were of two screenshots, one of which appeared to be a Facebook page that responded to the search term “k shanmugam ex wife” and displayed an image of Shanmugam and his former wife.
The other was a screenshot of a forum post that contained allegations against Shanmugam and was attributed to a “Former Mrs K. Shanmugam”.
Two days later, another TikTok user with the username “@tharakhussin” purportedly uploaded a video containing an image of a Facebook post that featured an article published by celebscritic.com, which included false and defamatory statements about Mr Shanmugam.
The video did not directly link back to the article, but it displayed the headline in full, highlighting Shanmugam’s alleged extramarital affair with Member of Parliament (MP) Foo Mee Har.
The third TikTok user went by the username “@thaddeusthomas81” and had allegedly posted a video on August 17, which was purported to be about the minister. It had the caption, “Clarifications and a look at who is the wife and alleged mistress”.
The video also contained an image, among others, of Foo with the words “alleged affair with MP Foo Mee Har”.
To clarify the false allegations, Shanmugum said on his Facebook account on August 15 that an imposter wrote the allegations attributed to his former wife and that his ex-wife had told him she did not write them.
The minister also said at the time that the allegations of his supposed affair with an MP were “false and baseless”.
Thomas said in his apology note that the TikTok post and any copies have been removed.
“I undertake not to publish any further statements on this, or to make any allegations to the same or similar effect, in any manner whatsoever,” he said. ― TODAY