We’ve seen influencers sometimes coming up with content to entertain viewers or draw laughs, but where does one draw the line?
On Sunday (Aug 3), three Malaysian content creators uploaded a video onto Chinese video-sharing platform Douyin under the handle @aluk_777, showing them giving chicken bones to a homeless man in Malaysia.
In the video, the trio can be seen eating fried chicken and licking the leftover bones before packing them into a wrapper with some rice and handing the packet to a homeless man, describing it as a “good deed”. It concludes with a clip of them feeding a plate of chicken meat to a dog.
“We can’t waste food, so we’ve decided to donate these bones to someone in need,” one of them said in the video.
The video went viral, sparking outrage online and has since been removed.
But that’s the thing about digital footprints — they don’t get wiped easily, and the video has since been reuploaded on several platforms.
Under a Reddit post featuring the video, netizens expressed their opinions over the incident, many criticising the trio’s actions.
“Disgraceful and extremely cruel act. I wonder how they could go through with it,” a netizen expressed.
Said another: “Anything for clout.”
Some also suggested that the video was “rage bait”, intentionally designed to provoke anger in order to boost engagement.
“People need to understand what rage bait is. Don’t share, don’t post, don’t engage,” a commenter said.
And to many, whether it’s a marketing tactic or not, it had gone too far, with one commenter saying the video’s content went beyond “rage bait” and was “insulting, degrading and dehumanising”.
Following the backlash, one of the content creators involved in the incident posted an apology video on Douyin on Aug 5 under the same handle. It has also since been reuploaded on TikTok.
In the video, the man claimed that the whole incident was staged and that the homeless man had agreed to “act” with them.
“Our original intention from the beginning was to help those in society, letting everyone think that we fed him chicken bones. But we did talk to the beggar and asked him if he could act with us. He also agreed. So we acted together to film the video. We really did not let him eat chicken bones. We gave him a whole meal. Please give us a better chance to give back to society. We will do more good deeds in the future, like helping the homeless. So I’m really sorry everyone,” he said.
The apology video also depicted the trio handing a box containing two pieces of chicken and a packet of rice to the homeless man.
But it doesn’t seem like it’s all water under the bridge as netizens have continued to flock to the comments section to express their disapproval of the trio’s actions.
On the same day that the apology video was uploaded, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) issued a statement saying that it has initiated an investigation — stating that the video was “believed to be offensive and extreme in nature, and has drawn widespread anger and condemnation among netizens while offending sensitivities“.
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carol.ong@asiaone.com
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