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SCMP Economy2 hours agoCrime1 min readChina

Police investigating racist and xenophobic online comments

Senior Minister K Shanmugam condemns 'shameful' remarks regarding China-Nepal disaster and Singapore Airlines investment

k shanmugam racism xenophobia

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Senior Minister K Shanmugam has ordered a police investigation into racist and xenophobic online comments targeting the China-Nepal disaster and Singapore Airlines' investment in Air India, labeling the remarks as 'shameful' and 'totally unacceptable'.

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The government is responding to a surge in offensive online discourse following international news events and corporate investment announcements.

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Police are investigating “shameful” racist and xenophobic online comments about the China-Nepal disaster and Singapore Airlines’ (SIA) investment in Air India, Senior Minister K Shanmugam said on Saturday.

Mr Shanmugam told reporters that the Ministry of Digital Development and Information will also ask social media platforms to remove comments that breach guidelines.

“The media tells me that they had to remove several comments because they were so nasty. I don’t know if all the comments are all made by Singaporeans. But, I will say this – the comments are shameful, nasty, totally unacceptable,” added Mr Shanmugam, who is also home affairs minister and coordinating minister for national security.

“I have asked police to look into these comments.”

Under CNA’s social media moderation policy, users who post hate speech, racist or offensive comments are blocked from commenting on CNA’s social media pages.

In cases where such comments are widespread and persistent, CNA may totally turn off comments on its posts, as it did for several news posts related to the China-Nepal disaster.

Open Questions

Will any individuals be charged for the comments?
How many comments were removed in total?

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Police investigating racist and xenophobic online comments

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Wang Wenjie, a man who lured Chinese people to go to Myanmar to defraud the industrial park, was sentenced to 6 years in August.

Physical conflict breaks out on American Airlines flight, man was kidnapped by passengers

Passengers on American Airlines flight lost control and caused trouble, were restrained and then made an emergency landing

Li Yiru, the key figure in Tzu Chi's 1.06 billion BNT vaccine fraud case, is wanted and has fled to Hong Kong.

A Taichung woman and her brother attacked and threatened three female lawyers during a dispute over property. She even slapped the president of the Lawyers Association. The second instance dismissed the appeal.

Temporary worker from Changhua joined a scam group to work as a driver and received 1.86 million a month. He was convicted of 40 crimes and sentenced to a total of 73 years in April.