SINGAPORE, July 19 (Reuters) - Singapore has ordered

five social media platforms to block users in the city-state

from accessing 95 accounts mostly linked to exiled Chinese

tycoon Guo Wengui, the government said on Friday.

The direction was issued to X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube

and Tiktok under the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act

on accounts that published more than 120 posts between April 17

and May 10 on Singapore's leadership transition.

The posts alleged Singapore was "in the pocket of a foreign

actor, and that the foreign actor was behind the scenes in the

selection of Singapore's fourth generation leader", the Home

Affairs Ministry said in a media statement.

They were published in a coordinated manner, it said.

Singapore had on May 15 sworn in Lawrence Wong as its fourth

prime minister.

Guo, who was linked to 92 of the 95 accounts, is an exiled

Chinese businessman and an outspoken opponent of Beijing's

communist government. He was on Tuesday convicted in the U.S. on

charges of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from online

followers.

He is a former real estate developer who left China in 2014

during an anti-corruption crackdown. Guo had paid former Donald

Trump adviser Steve Bannon $1 million as part of a consulting

contract designed to lend legitimacy to his anti-Chinese

Communist Party (CCP) movement.

Guo and Bannon launched a right-wing movement called the New

Federal State of China in 2020 with a stated aim of overthrowing

China's CCP as the Chinese government.

Singapore's home affairs ministry said Guo and his

affiliated organisations - the New Federal State of China and

the Himalaya Supervisory Organisation - have posted a variety of

other Singapore-related narratives.

"The network's coordinated actions and precedent of using

Singapore to push its agenda have demonstrated its willingness

and capability to spread false narratives that are detrimental

to Singapore's interests," the ministry said.

It said there are grounds to believe that Guo's network

would use the 95 accounts to mount hostile information campaigns

targeted directly at Singapore that can "undermine sovereignty

and social cohesion".

(Reporting by Xinghui Kok; Editing by Arun Koyyur)