A man has filed a police report against social media influencer Wendy Cheng over a now-deleted 2010 tweet that purportedly targeted migrant workers.
Vignesh Sankar, 21, reported to police yesterday after he found that Cheng, better known as Xiaxue, had posted on Twitter a comment he said was “trying to stir up anti-Indian sentiments.”
The tweet is no longer available on Xiaxue’s account but was captured in a video Sankar had put up on his Instagram.
The tweet in question had read: “Coz they molest people and fuck our maids and leer at girls and flood little India!! Yeah I’m stereotyping, but fuck u if u say its not true.”
According to the police report Coconuts Singapore had looked at, Sankar also alleged that Cheng was propagating a misconception about migrant workers.
Xiaxue did not immediately respond to Coconuts Singapore’s online request for comment.
Singapore’s community of migrant workers include those from South Asia. Little India is among places commonly visited by locals, tourists as well as migrant workers, many of who work in the construction sector.
Sankar made the report after the 36-year-old influencer put up Instagram comments related to Workers’ Party candidate Raeesah Khan, who is currently under police investigation over two online posts for allegedly promoting enmity between people on grounds of race and religion.
Among other things, Xiaxue had asked Khan to “stop trying to divide the nation with your race politics.”
In a separate Instagram post, she also asked parties to “stop fielding radical feminists/leftists as candidates ffs (sic) we don’t need their poison infecting our politics.”
Khan regards herself as an “intersectional feminist.”
Khan has since apologized for the two online comments, which were written in the context of the City Harvest Church trial in 2018 and the Robertson Quay incident involving social distancing violators earlier this year, respectively. In her apology, she said that her comments were “insensitive” and that her intention was to raise awareness on minority concerns.
Many people who rallied support for Khan said that she was calling out existing inequalities in Singapore. Supporters have also spawned the #IStandWithRaeesah online movement.
Police began investigations after two reports were filed against Khan and a consultation with the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
Yesterday, a police report was also filed against the PAP over its statement calling on the Workers’ Party to state its stand on Khan’s online posts.
Goh Jing Heng Alfred claimed that the PAP had incorrectly asserted that Khan had “admitted to making highly derogatory statements about Chinese and Christians” and had through its statement allegedly promoted enmity between groups.
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