A popular platform for minority groups to share their perspectives in Singapore will continue to share anonymous anecdotes after being tricked into publishing fake stories.
Minority Voices, which has a following of close to 30,000 on Instagram, said yesterday that it is tough to verify all the information in stories sent in about racism and discrimination faced by minorities after a Redditor demonstrated it did not fully vet information before publishing.
“The nature of racist experiences in individuals’ personal histories make it difficult —near impossible— to verify all of them. Does this mean we should not talk about them at all? We do not think so,” it wrote Tuesday.
“We remain undeterred in our efforts to build an anti-racist society and trust our community to continue sending their true stories and share their experiences with us on this platform,” it added.
Reddit user Sgrawthrowaway yesterday accused Minority Voices of publishing false information they themself had sent to the page. Sgrawthrowaway suggested that, by doing so, it discredited the many other anecdotes detailing racist encounters and episodes of discrimination shared by the page to raise awareness about minority issues.
“For quite some time, I’ve come across many ‘anonymous’ stories about race/chinese privilege on Instagram. I was curious how many of these are actually true, so I thought: why not test it out,” the user wrote.
Twenty “completely fabricated” stories about Singaporean Chinese being racist to minorities were sent by the user to the page, where they said “a few” were published without any form of verification.
Someone on Facebook forwarded the post to Coconuts along with screenshots of two of the fabricated stories. They denied being involved in the sting.
The first bogus story posted Wednesday detailed a cab driver ignoring a healthcare worker and picking up a Chinese man instead. The worker’s colleague the next day dismissed the racist claims and said the driver “cannot see” the worker.
The now-removed second story complained about a lecturer openly ranting to the class about how Halal food is not as “nice” and “fragrant” as Chinese food, and that Muslim students should not complain about not having enough Halal options as there are fast food restaurants available.
The post had over 1,900 likes.
In its statement, the community said that the stories were “crafted in a malicious and manipulative manner” and “discredited” real-life experiences that people face.
On the community’s page, its disclaimer states that it is “not personally responsible for any facts, activities or occurrences” in the stories published.
Minority Voices says its intention is to initiate discourse and not “hurt to inflame any racial or religious sentiments.” It also filters out comments and blocks accounts that incite hate and discrimination.
But the Redditor still thinks it crosses the line and may be spreading misinformation.
“As a page that claims to raise awareness and has a large following, I thought they’d at least check before posting their stories, but they didn’t even verify anything,” Sgrawthrowaway wrote.
Minority Voices said the anecdotes drew on real, proven incidents but lacked information identifying any individuals or institutions that would have “triggered our verification mechanisms.”
Sgthrowaway said if they could fool the page, it called into question the authenticity of its other stories.
“Who knows how many more of the anonymous stories they have published thus far are untrue? Is it ok to mislead people and instigate hate like this?” the user added.
The user demanded a better alternative to voice issues of race in Singapore, which has struggled to secure racial harmony and seen numerous episodes of open discrimination, often at the hands of its ethnic Chinese majority.
“Im not saying that racism doesn’t exist, but conversations about race must be done in a more meaningful manner. Posting unverified stories will only derail the discourse and do the community a huge disfavor,” Sgrawthrowaway wrote.
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