A YouTuber forced to apologize for an offhand comment comparing his quarantine experience to Nazi concentration camps has ended around-the-clock streaming of his quarantine stay at a posh hotel – at least publicly.
After 11 days of nonstop streaming from the Carlton Hotel and likening his arrival processing to that of Holocaust victims (he apologized), travel vlogger Jason Ng yesterday made his original, contentious video private and removed his stream, leaving his viewers hanging.
“I wished more Singapore had the chance to get to know me personally but my live stream strangely and mysteriously stopped half way today and i was never able to reconnect… guess it’s time to call an end to this then,” Ng told Coconuts last night.
The 44-year-old streamer faced immense backlash from the public, many of whom called him “ungrateful” for not appreciating the five-star hotel stay at taxpayer expense. After 17 years away from home, Ng might have misgauged how his comments would be received.
On Nov. 23, Ng complained about how he was treated upon arrival in the now-private video.
“I think the process could have been done a lot better because the process honestly made me feel like I was being ushered in a Nazi concentration camp,” he said, describing the way staff communicated as “a very totalitarian, dictator kind of thing.”
His remarks were quickly and widely condemned as insensitive.
Singaporean streamer sorry for comparing quarantine experience to Nazi concentration camp
In his message to Coconuts, Ng repeated his unconditional apology.
“I should have been more [sensitive] about the fact that this is a public platform that I am on and should have watched my words. I deserve the backlash and I sincerely apologise to all the good people of Singapore who were offended by what I said,” he said.
He also likened himself to an old man with poor communication skills who loves to crack inappropriate jokes at the local coffee shop.
“I have been careless and politically insensitive in my use of analogies to express what I feel. I am not a professional artiste or celebrity and I was not trained in proper PR skills,” he said. “I am more like the typical kopitiam uncle sitting around and chatting with friends and sometimes using jokes and analogies that are not appropriate.”
Prior to the online kerfuffle, Ng had built an audience by streaming his daily workouts and chats with viewers for hours on end on his channel, which has nearly 20,000 subscribers.
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