A proper hullaballoo broke out on Facebook over the past couple of days, in which a lady first claimed that a “selfish woman” had “adamantly” refused to give up a reserved seat to her.
Said reserved seat had the woman’s bag and her son’s feet resting on it — and the complainer was unhappy about that, as two seats had been occupied “unnecessarily”.
The post made it to All Singapore Stuff (aka the site that’s been accused of generating viral online hoaxes), where the whole complaint was taken word for word without verification. Subsequently, the story took viral to the next level, with horribly racist commenters coming out of the woodwork.
Then came an opposing voice sternly rebuking All Singapore Stuff, their commenters and the original poster. ’Twas the husband of the “selfish woman” himself, who asserted that “absolutely no one came and asked for the seat” throughout their whole journey. He also claimed that there were many other available seats, and it wouldn’t make sense for the OP ask for the reserved one.
“We are involved in multiple charities in Singapore and stupid racial comments is the last thing we want to hear,” he wrote, adding that he planned to report the matter to the police.
“This post violates the privacy of my family and is made with malicious intent only to get eyeballs.”
OP returned to hit back at the husband’s post, maintaining that what she posted was “nothing but the truth”.
“There was indeed no empty seat at the point of time as I entered and walked from one end of the two rows of seats to that reserved seat in question,” she wrote. She adds that she took the picture out of disgust, and also to show her “great grandniece, grandnieces and grandnephews” to “inculcate in them a right sense of graciousness, consideration and courtesy to all mankind”. No, really.
At this point, it’s all just she-said, he-said, so it’ll be up to the cops to investigate, should a report get lodged in the end. Basically, it’s just another day in the land of viral social media squabbles that make no impact on your life at all.
