There’s a Disturbing Trend of ‘Righteous’ People Online-Shaming Others Who Didn’t Wear Masks

By
George Yang
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We Singaporeans are extremely kind souls.

Over 500 people who’ve claimed the $500 Temporary Relief Fund (a one-time payout for people who’ve lost more than 30% of their income due to COVID-19) from Ah Gong decided to give the money back to the authorities as some of them think that other people might need them.

Reader Bao: That’s only after the Law & Home Affairs—

People are posting online about how they’d like to help others by offering to give food to people who would have to go hungry during this Circuit Breaker period, though they might need the transporter beam technology from Star Trek since they can’t leave the house to deliver the food although they can easily send money via phone.

And then there are highly righteous and super socially responsible people who seem to be out there filming others who have broken the Circuit Breaker rules, targeting primarily foreigners, because signing up to volunteer as an SG Clean ambassador takes 4 minutes to fill up a form, and they’ve got no time for it.

You do know I’m being sarcastic, right?

There’s a Disturbing Trend of ‘Righteous’ People Online-Shaming Others Who Didn’t Wear Masks

Ever since the authorities set a rule that requires everyone to wear a mask in public, online vigilantes hoping to get a dose of fame have been actively going around, thinking that their populist manner of online shaming others who don’t wear masks would add some karma points to their social media accounts.

For example, this:

The video appears to have been removed; maybe the person who filmed it has finally decided to volunteer as an SG Clean Ambassador instead lah.

It shows an innocent man exercising, and the online hero has to step in and remind him to wear his mask.

Correction: remind is too mild a word.

The hero that’s made up of pixels did even more; he started to say irrelevant things that I’m pretty sure is not to show that the hero is a hero.

Here are a few sentences that make perfect sense to the hero and zero sense to us all:

“Are you educated?”

“How much it cost our country to do this?”

“You don’t owe me a living. We don’t owe you a living.”

Source: Tenor

The innocent man was visibly shaken, and repeatedly apologise while calling the online hero “sir”.

Another example, which is still online in YouTube but we’re not going to embed it here, is this:

It’s same same but different: a digital hero approached someone who seemed to have just finished his exercise and he had a mask on his hand.

However, this time, the man isn’t fearful of the hero; instead, he retorted, while the online hero seemed to enjoy it as he thought that would have made a good footage, and urged him to be socially responsible aggressively.

That digital hero might be VR Man in disguise. We never know.

Online Shaming Amplified During This Period

Online shaming has existed in social media way before COVID-19 wreak havoc in our daily lives, but it didn’t amplify until recently—especially now when it’s easier to spot someone breaking the rules that are borderline.

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The worrying thing is that social media algorithm worships posts like that; post that kind of video online and it’d garner thousands of shares.

Which is why we humans, who’re not locked by algorithms, shouldn’t worship shame, but instead combat it.

The two videos mentioned above haven’t gone down well with netizens as people thought the “hero” obviously had intentions to boost his ego.

Like what a writer of Everyday Feminism says, the call-out action is actually not about the person who has been called out but about the “digital hero” because

  • You’re Not Focused on the Outcome
  • You’re Not Choosing Your Battles Based on What’s Best for the Community Involved
  • You’re Using the Same Strategy for Every Situation
  • You’re Centreing Yourself on Behalf of Another Group
  • You’re Engaging in Respectability Politics to Police Other People’s Behavior
  • You’re Trying to Force Someone to Be Accountable

The next thing we need is more videos like these to divide our society.

Stop The Mindless Call-Out Culture

Spot someone not wearing a mask? Keep your phone in your pocket and gently remind him or her to do so. If the person doesn’t comply, just say an enforcement officer is nearby and walk off. A white lie is better than an online shame.

Spot a crowd? Keep your phone in your pocket and gently remind them that they might be facing a $300 fine each. As usual, if they don’t comply, just say you’ve just seen an enforcement officer and walk off.

Now’s not the time to bring others down to boost your ego.

Do it via your #ThrowBackThursdays after 4 May 2020 lah.

In the meantime, if you’d like to know how ego can change a person, watch this video we’ve done (and also subscribe to our YouTube channel, please?):

Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:

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George Yang
Email: [email protected]