S'porean teen who identified as white supremacist placed on restriction order

Radicalised by online material, 16-year-old student aspired to carry out attacks abroad

- Jean Iau

A Secondary 4 student who considered himself a white supremacist after being radicalised by online far-right extremist propaganda was handed a restriction order under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in November 2023.

Although he is ethnic Chinese, the 16-year-old aspired to carry out attacks overseas to further the white supremacist cause. He had no plans to carry out any attacks in Singapore.

He is the second Singaporean to be dealt with under the ISA after being radicalised by far-right extremist ideologies, said the Internal Security Department (ISD) on Jan 24. It stated that the first Singaporean, now 19, was released from detention in January after close to three years.

Under the restriction order, the youth must comply with several conditions. These include not being allowed to change his residence or travel out of Singapore, access the Internet or social media and issue public statements, without the approval of the director of ISD.

“At the point of investigation, he strongly identified as a white supremacist and pro-white sympathiser, and hoped to be recruited for violent attacks by white supremacist groups overseas to ‘fight for the whites’,” said ISD.

Explaining how he became radicalised, ISD said he had chanced upon videos by foreign far-right political commentator and white supremacist Paul Nicholas Miller and was exposed to violent extremist material online in 2022. Miller advocates for a race war and has been tied to multiple far-right extremist organisations overseas, including the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo movement.

By early 2023, the youth had developed an intense hatred of communities targeted by far-right extremists, including African Americans, Arabs, and LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) individuals.