Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA)

Detailed Note

Passed in 2023, OCHA gives police and prosecutors a unified toolkit for governing online criminal harms. It is particularly relevant in the AI era: AI-generated scam messages, deepfake extortion content and automated harassment can all be addressed through governance orders, takedowns, access restrictions and payment-blocking under OCHA. The Act is the foundational layer of Singapore's output-side AI governance — not AI-specific, but most AI-enabled criminal conduct falls within its scope.