Online taxi group publishes blacklist, plans to form association

Andrew Scott, administrator of the Facebook group Macau Taxi Driver Shame, has revealed to the Times that the group’s administrators will shortly begin the process of forming a Macau taxi passengers’ association.
Meanwhile, the group has released a “blacklist” and a “white-
list” of taxis yesterday in an effort to help fix issues with the system in Macau.
During a telephone interview yesterday, Mr Scott said that they are planning to form a taxi passengers’ association this month.
“We hope that it may be registered by September 21,” he said.
“It is one thing to have a Facebook group but another thing to have a formal association in Macau.”
In terms of the group’s blacklist and whitelist, it is composed of the license plates of taxis and sometimes taxi drivers’ license numbers that were submitted by members.
During the two-month period between June 30 and August 28 this year, Taxi Driver Shame members have reported 141 specific incidents of both good and bad taxi driver behavior.
Around 85 percent of these incidents involved so-called bad behavior, such as overcharging, dangerous driving, poor taxi interiors, rude and/or aggressive drivers and what the group described as the most frequent problem – taxi drivers refusing services and choosing specific clients.
In a note that came with the two lists, Taxi Driver Shame pointed out that the two lists have some limitations.
For example, a taxi driver who behaves inappropriately can drive different taxis. This explains why there are license plates that appear on both lists.
It also pointed out that the group’s members “may innocently or maliciously misreport bad experiences”. However, they stressed that the publishing of a blacklist is not to “forever ruin the reputation of any particular driver or taxi”, but rather to serve as a tool to encourage reform and improvement of the local taxi industry.
“It’s more about highlighting the difference between the good and the bad,” Andrew Scott said.
“There is certainly the element of shaming. (…) But our primary goal is to fix the problem. And whatever we need to do to fix the problem, let’s go ahead and do it,” he added.
The Taxi Driver Shame administrator said that they are not going to submit the list individually to the Transport Bureau, but as a part of the submission for the public consultation over the review of the current taxi regulation regime.
Furthermore, Andrew Scott has dismissed concerns about privacy-related issues the two lists may cause.
“There is nothing on this list that is not available to anybody who goes to [our] Facebook group”, he said.
“Quite frankly, the lists are not lists that are published by Taxi Driver Shame. The lists are published by those 2,111 members of the group. All of this is merely an organization of information that is already freely available and was posted by 2,111 members of the group.”
Mr Scott added that when taxis fish, they can be seen by everyone. Thus, he saw no privacy issue involved.
“They did it in public (…) at any one of many locations in Macau. So how is this a privacy issue? Not at all. This is publicly happening everyday in Macau very openly,” he said
Additionally, Andrew Scott said that Taxi Driver Shame is not planning any official campaign such as a parade. However, he noticed that some members are using their own time to take pictures of taxis that were alleged to have committed irregularities.
The administrator also suggested that they are going to try recruiting more Chinese-  speaking members.
The group is currently engaging with people who speak both English and Cantonese and is encouraging them to translate some of the posts on the group’s Facebook page.
“Eventually, we will have people posting in Chinese and some people will translate them into English,” he said.

João Pedro Lau