Internet lynch mob and community moderation

Since TOC published Donaldson's story, some 'people' have been private messaging me on Facebook. They have all spoken up for Serena Lee the person highlighted in TOC's article (see HERE) and have chided Jewel (the writer of the article) and me for publishing the article without fact-checking.

The first 'person' to private message me was Andrea Tan:

I replied to her that TOC only reported from the police report (of which we have a copy). TOC also has a policy to give the person we write about, the right of reply, if they feel that they have been wrongly misrepresented or maligned in our article. For the record, Serena Lee did not contact me in any way (or TOC) to express her displeasure.

What has happened instead is 'various people' have gone on various platforms to speak up against Jewel, me and TOC. I am fine with differences of opinion, which is why after making clarifications on the matter on Gwee Li Sui's wall, I did not try to defend myself.

I also tried to find out who some of commenters on Gwee's wall were  and instead of sending a note which could be misinterpreted, decided to see if I could initiate a face-to-face meeting with them. I called the organisation listed in one of the commenter Elle-Bee Tan's FB wall (which is public information) 'Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory' but the CEO of the organisation Dr Michael Chee said that there was no such person there.

Then this morning, I had a FB note from one Danny Tan (who I do not know), and he said:

"Do heed my gentle advice as this matter will not go away until the good reputation of the individuals are sincerely repaired. There are many of us who support Serena and know she is anything but a Muslim basher and she stated quite clearly that though she was anti-theism for the violence occuring in the world as a result, she was not anti-theists. One suspects that in your daughter's lazy reporting and her ignorance, led her to utterly and completely fail to recognise the seriousness of her boldness, believing that generating traffic superceded that of journalistic integrity. Worse, TOC editors still left the article there quoting Serena completely out of context up until this very moment. Many screenshots have been taken and circulated and with the help of the many enemies that TOC has made and the secular community, this matter will not go away until an apology is issued."

I offered to meet him in person to hear him out, which he declined. The subsequent conversation between us is below:

Then, later today I had the most worrying FB note from one Audrey Tan, which is below:

'She' threatened to lift pictures of my daughter's FB page, doctor them and release them on the internet unless I took down the article where Serena is mentioned in TOC and Jewel issued a public apology. 'She' also commented on Gwee Li Sui's wall that "we must shame Ravi and his daughter".

I was very alarmed and making a police report crossed my mind. But I thought I should 'walk the talk'. We so often talk about community moderation on the internet. I hope the blogging community would come out and censure these 'people'.

So far, only Alfian Sa'at has called them out. Of course I have had phone calls of support and private messages on FB. But for such cyber-bullying to stop, people must come out openly and condemn such acts. I am made of tougher-material (my daughter too) and we can withstand such attacks. I shudder to think what it would have been if it was another person.

Jewel and I are real people, with real faces. You can call us, meet us and talk to us in person. We are not cyber-trolls and certainly do not hide behind a cloak of anonymity. Should we now cower in  fear because of these threats and make our FB profile and pictures private?

No, we will not do that! We have confidence in the ability of the online world of Singapore, to do the right thing.

But of course, I will also reserve my right to take appropriate action (legal included) if this cyber-bullying gets out of hand.

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The full conversation between Donaldson, Amran, Serene and others on the racially offensive 're-post' is HERE.

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Update: Serena Lee has since PMed me and our conversation is here: