Our Desk | On the irresponsible use of social media

Lynzy Valles

The epidemic outbreak has caused a lot of unnecessary racism – at least on social media – as it has created jokes and memes about how people are scared of just being next to a Chinese person, perceiving them as infected with the novel coronavirus.
Recently, as seen on social media posts, some users fail to be responsible, sharing videos of people collapsing tagging it as #wuhancorona or #ncov2019. However, some of these videos have been circulating around the internet for quite some time.
The novel coronavirus has been the subject of significant fears, and social media and internet users play a big part in exacerbating this fear as fake news has been spreading on different platforms – particularly on Facebook.
The most popular fake news include a series of videos that show people fainting on the streets, while others have shared photos of a person already lying on the streets.
As reported by the Times yesterday, the Public Security Police Force has clarified that a series of videos published on social media platforms showing people falling to the ground in Macau are unrelated to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, and that the instances were “due to excessive drinking and not due to sickness.”
Fake news has been fueling panic – which is so obvious in the supermarkets, especially last week, as residents lined up in long queues, stocking up basic necessities including rice and noodles.
While scrolling on social media the other day, I found on my news feed a post sarcastically thanking China for being the reason why Macau is experiencing layoffs and why employees are being forced to take annual leave.
“Thanks to the people of China. Many have been affected and have lost their jobs,” the user said in a post.
Obviously, the post was sarcastic but was it necessary?
I think in the time of this crisis and the subsequent issues that the city is experiencing – people being forced to take annual (and even unpaid) leave, non-resident workers being fired due to a downturn in business – we should be more mindful of sharing and commenting on the effect of 2019-nCoV. Obviously, there isn’t really anyone to blame.
These people – particularly those from Hubei – are just victims of this unwanted epidemic.
Many blame Hubei residents for eating weird and live animals but it really gives no one permission to discriminate against them, which in the end fuels hostility.
On another interesting note, several residents were giddy about the government’s announcement that the annual cash handouts will be given three months earlier – in April rather than July – to help ease the impact of the pneumonia outbreak.
Social media users – at least on my news feed – were thanking the government for “taking care” of them amid the virus outbreak, many of them ironically. These were the same people ranting on social media platforms about how the local government should just place a complete ban on any Chinese visitors.
The city’s annual wealth partaking scheme – which kicked off in 2008 – was implemented when Macau was experiencing an economic boom particularly due to the impact of the wealthy and affluent Chinese gamblers from mainland China.
The rapid rise of mainland Chinese travelers has played such a significant part in the city’s economy – becoming Macau’s top visitor source.
Do we just want the 10,000 patacas and to go on criticizing a group that played a huge part in the city’s economic development?