Amos Yee

Amos Yee Pang Sang is a Singaporean teenage YouTube personality and former child actor.

In late March 2015, shortly after the death of Lee Kuan Yew, Yee uploaded a video to YouTube, which was critical of both Lee Kuan Yew and Christianity. As a result, Yee was arrested and charged with violating the Penal Code by "wounding" religious feelings and the Protection from Harassment Act by causing "distress".

2011-2015
Although Yee speaks with an American accent in his videos, he comes from a traditional Chinese family and grew up in Singapore. He studied at Zhonghua Secondary School.

In 2011, Yee won awards for Best Short Film and Best Actor at The New Paper's First Film Fest for his film Jan, which depicts a boy trying to persuade his three friends to help a cancer-stricken girl. This reportedly led to Jack Neo, the chief judge of the event, casting Yee in a minor acting role in Neo's 2012 film, We Not Naughty. Regarding Yee's role, Neo said Yee "only has three scenes" in the movie.

In January 2012, Yee was widely criticized by netizens for uploading a video to YouTube which "called the Chinese New Year a rip-off of the Western New Year's Day", according to My Paper. The 2012 video garnered over 150,000 views; Yee later clarified that the 2012 video was satirical in nature. Within the 2012 video, Yee had also said that it was this was his "fake representation" of Chinese New Year.

In the months before the March 2015 video on Lee Kuan Yew, The New York Times depicted Yee as having uploaded "more than a dozen comedic riffs ... on subjects including Singapore’s legal ban on homosexuality, The Hunger Games, Valentine's Day, "Boyhood" and the decision to drop out of school 'to pursue my "career" as a 17-year-old boy ranting in front of a video camera.'"

2015 video
On 27 March 2015, Yee uploaded a video 8:38 long to YouTube.

It was entitled "Lee Kuan Yew is Finally Dead", in which he lambasted Lee's censorship and authoritarianism, and the fear he instilled in his detractors. He called Lee Kuan Yew "a horrible person", "an awful leader to [Singapore]", and a "dictator, but managed to fool most of the world to think he was democratic," and that he "proliferated nationalistic propaganda" on a quotidian basis. He complained that during Lee's rule, the entire media and education was controlled by him. He said that "because everyone is afraid that if they say something like that, they would get in trouble". He issues a challenge to Lee Hsien Loong, saying that if the prime minister wanted to sue him, he would "oblige to dance with him". He further compared Lee to Jesus Christ, in that they were "both power-hungry and malicious but deceive others into thinking they are both compassionate and kind". The video was later taken down but was reposted.

Twenty police reports were filed against Yee. One complainant believed that the line separating freedom and offence had been crossed. Yee's mother reportedly filed a police report against hew son because she was unable to control his behaviour.

Before the video was removed on 29 March 2015 it had been viewed 600,000 times.

Arrest
On 29 March 2015, Yee was arrested. Police stated that the arrest was on the grounds of "deliberate intention of wounding the religious or racial feelings", "threatening, abusive or insulting communication" and obscenity.

On 31 March 2015, three charges were read out to Yee in the State Courts, two of which were related to the 2015 video. The first charge was that Yee's 2015 video violated the Penal Code as it "contained remarks against Christianity, with the deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of Christians in general". The second charge was that Yee's 2015 video violated the Protection from Harassment Act as it "contained remarks about Mr Lee Kuan Yew which was intended to be heard and seen by persons likely to be distressed". The third charge was that Yee had violated the Penal Code by uploading an obscene image of Lee and Margaret Thatcher on 28 March 2015. Yee was released on bail set at S$20,000 on 31 March on the condition that he not comment or distribute content online while the case was still ongoing.

Response
The Straits Times reported that most netizens have "slammed" Yee for publishing the video.

A Christian Singaporean started a petition calling for Yee's release. The Committee to Protect Journalists media rights group also called for Yee's release.