Cancel culture is coming to our shores, warns Xiaxue, but is it already here? For years

What is cancel culture?

Hands up those who think it refers to events getting cancelled because of Covid-19.

Like the disease, the term “cancel culture” first emerged last year but in the last few months, started spreading like, well, the coronavirus.

And there’s no vaccine to protect you from it either.



I’m actually afraid to explain what cancel culture is because I will probably get cancelled for getting it wrong.

So I shall cowardly point you to Macquarie Dictionary, which defines the term as “the attitudes within a community which call for or bring about the withdrawal of support from a public figure, such as cancellation of an acting role, a ban on playing an artist’s music, removal from social media, etc., usually in response to an accusation of a socially unacceptable action or comment”.

Recent targets of the woke cancel culture warriors include Mediacorp for its Channel 8 drama My Guardian Angels, which depicted a gay character as a paedophile, and Marshall Cavendish Education, publisher of "an astoundingly racist local book" titled Who Wins?

Both have apologised and the textbook is being recalled. My Guardian Angels ended its run two months ago, so it’s too late for the show to be cancelled cancelled, but its stars Kym Ng and Brandon Wong have been receiving “abusive messages”.




This kind of online behaviour has of course been around for years since the rise of social media. Just ask Amy Cheong and Anton Casey.

It’s just that now there’s a fashionable name for it. Also known as “call-out culture” or “outrage culture”, “cancel culture” was Macquarie Dictionary’s 2019 word of the year.



No, I’ve never heard of Macquarie Dictionary either. It’s a dictionary of Australian English. This is where I might’ve made a gnarly joke about Australian English, but I don’t want to get cancelled from Down Under.

Closer to home, local influencer Xiaxue posted a 19-minute video on Instagram last week warning Singaporeans about the encroaching scourge:

“Cancel culture is coming to our shores and right now, it may not affect you, but trust me, it eventually will.”

Yeah, just ask Mediacorp and Marshall Cavendish Education.

View this post on Instagram

What is cancel culture and how is it going to affect you?? Watch!! This video is 19 mins (sorry it’s a serious topic!) so if you don’t have time to watch it bookmark this first!! ⠀ And yes I’m giving five FREE Instagram ads for brands who are willing to give a FUCK YOU to cancel culture!! Yes free!! 😇 Having a tough time during covid and want to promote your business? I’ll be leaving the google docs link in my ig stories for brands to apply for this ONCE IN A LIFETIME opportunity so apply now!!

A post shared by Wendy Cheng 👑 Xiaxue (@xiaxue) on Jul 21, 2020 at 3:26pm PDT

In the video, the neon-haired enfant terrible also known as Wendy Cheng began: “Recently, people have been trying to cancel me. What’s new? But this time around, it’s definitely a little bit more serious.”

By “a little bit more serious”, she meant a “small group of people making police reports against me, resulting in the police coming to my house”.

This was over tweets that her accusers dug out from years ago and claimed were racist.

This was after Xiaxue threw some online shade at Workers’ Party then-candidate Raeesah Khan after police reports were made against the now MP-elect.



This was over tweets that Ms Khan’s accusers dug out from years ago and claimed were racist.

This was after Mr Ivan Lim withdrew as a People’s Action Party candidate, which Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong attributed to “a culture of trial by Internet”. He could have just said “cancel culture” for short.



Hey, at least no one accused Mr Lim of being racist. Just “arrogant and elitist”.

In a way, he started the sequence of events that led to Xiaxue’s video.

In response to it, playwright Alfian Sa’at posted on Facebook:

“Ugh. Stop it already with ‘cancel culture’. It’s just a backlash and a boycott. Don’t make it sound bigger than it is.”

The playwright made news last month when PAP attempted to cancel WP chief Pritam Singh by questioning his support of Alfian. I don’t think it worked. By the way, Xiaxue is a PAP supporter.

He concluded:

“But hey, you’ve decided to build a career out of pissing on the marginalised and engaging in flame wars with other personalities. You’ve made your bed out of pee and gasoline. Now, why complain about having to lie in it?”

Could this finally be the end of Xiaxue’s controversial 17-year career many have long wished for?

Not only are advertisers shunning her, YouTube channel Clicknetwork also announced on Facebook that it had dropped her as host of an upcoming show. In the same post, the company said that it is “against racism, bigotry, and hate”, which sort of implied that Xiaxue isn’t.



Clicknetwork has been producing videos with Xiaxue since 2007 and pretty much built its channel around her. It’s like the company suddenly realised who Xiaxue is after 13 years. Way to throw her under the cancel bus.



Her blog and Twitter account have since been set to private – but her Instagram and Facebook page remain accessible.

I still remember her going to war with K-pop fans in 2017 after she likened Monsta X to a “group of trannies” and tweeted that BTS sucked.



If she can survive the fearsome BTS Army, she can survive anything.

Cancel culture... cancelled?

- Published in The New Paper, 27 July 2020

K pop fans-Xiaxue deathmatch: Who are you calling 'trannies', you tranny!

So you thought calling a museum exhibition Syonan Gallery was controversial.

Xiaxue: “Hold my beer.”

Just over a week ago, the Internet enfant terrible likened K-pop boy band Monsta X to “a group of trannies” on Twitter.



Since then, she has been accused of hate speech, told to commit suicide and even worse, was called a “tranny” herself.

In other words, just another Friday night for the woman also known as Wendy Cheng.

Teens: "STOP SAYING TRANNY IT'S TRANSPHOBIC"
Also teens: "XIAXUE YOU LOOK LIKE A TRANNY YOURSELF DISGUSTING"
Me: 🤔

— ♥‿♥ Xiaxue ★彡 (@Xiaxue) February 25, 2017

And then someone tweeted her: “I dare you to come for BTS or EXO.”

(For you non-K-pop fans who can’t tell Super Bang from Big Junior, BTS and EXO are the names of two other K-pop boy bands.)

Not one to back down or pass up an opportunity to troll, Xiaxue accepted the dare and replied, “OK. BTS sucks and EXO sucks worse.”



And thus she incited two additional K-pop fandoms to urge her to kill herself.

This led to a particularly disturbing image sent to Xiaxue of a tombstone with a picture of her and her young son, Dashiel.

Inscribed on the tombstone: “Xiaxue and her family. Cause of death: Made fun of EXO and BTS.”

And you thought wild chickens were a public health risk. Who knew that mocking K-pop idols could be fatal? We may have been culling the wrong thing.

The sender of the image also tweeted: “I’ll make sure to kill you, your baby and ur womb.”

The “kill ur womb” part seems rather redundant since after you kill someone, the womb is pretty much rendered inoperative. Perhaps it's for emphasis.



Despite the criminal intimidation, Xiaxue hasn’t said anything about making a police report and seems more amused than concerned by the awkwardly Photoshopped threat on her life and family.

After all, she has been an online provocateur since 2003, sometimes not even on purpose. What’s another death threat?

On Friday, she uploaded a YouTube video entitled “Xiaxue Vs Rabid Kpop Fans!! Trolling is fun” to explain what happened.



She says she was on the same flight as Monsta X and “nobody actually gave two hoots about them”.

So on arrival at the airport, “everyone at the luggage carousel was actually puzzled because there were screaming teenage girls beyond the gates”.

Xiaxue says in the video: “I got home and I received a tweet from a disgusted Monsta X fan that says I don’t deserve to be on the same flight as them.”

This prompted the host of Youtube series Xiaxue's Guide To Life to google “Monsta X”, which resulted in the tweet:

“I didn’t know who Monsta X is but when I google imaged them, I genuinely thought they were a group of trannies.”

She says she woke up the next day to learn that “hell has descended on me” and she had become a “transphobe” and “homophobe” overnight, referring to the somewhat negative response to her tweet.

In the video, she addresses the issue of whether “tranny” is a slur and after citing US drag star RuPaul (“I love the word ‘tranny’”), concludes that “the trans community are still debating it till today”.



This is despite the Inter-University LGBT Network of Singapore releasing a statement in the wake of Xiaxue’s Monsta X tweet that the term “is usually understood by many transgender people as a dehumanising slur” and should be avoided.



But according to Xiaxue, banning offensive words just makes the problem worse. She says: “The solution is to make those words meaningless by refusing to take offence.”

Yah, you anti-Syonan Gallery people. You should have just refused to be offended by the name.

Xiaxue then goes on in the video to gloat about the numerous ways she trolled K-pop fans (and Yahoo News) and delineated how by supporting their idols, the fans are actually “propping up torture” in the K-pop industrial complex.

It’s exhausting.

If you’re a neutral bystander who is not a fan of either Xiaxue or K-pop, whose side would you take?

What a Monsta-rous choice.

It’s like Alien versus Predator.

Whoever wins, we lose.

- Published in The New Paper, 6 March 2017



UPDATE

I received this tweet from Xiaxue:

Hello @sm0ng I hate you for making me google this. #stompisfakenewsnowtoo #isoperativefor5mins pic.twitter.com/GORJsiaRRh

— Xiaxue ♥‿♥ (@Xiaxue) March 10, 2017

I replied:

@Xiaxue The tweet wasn't 'I'll make sure to kill you, your baby and the baby in ur womb'

— SM Ong (@sm0ng) March 10, 2017

@sm0ng hmmm true.... I don't know why I assumed there must be a baby in the womb

— Xiaxue ♥‿♥ (@Xiaxue) March 11, 2017

Xiaxue gets SingTel & Gushcloud to apologise: 'More harm than good'?

Oh my Gush.

I received an e-mail notification from Twitter that I had a new follower last week.

While that alone is unusual since it happens about as rarely as my haircuts, it was the identity of my new follower that was startling.

The subject line of the e-mail was:

“♥‿♥ Xiaxue ★彡 (@Xiaxue) is now following you on Twitter!”

And if that wasn’t alarming enough, the e-mail also contained the Twitter profile picture of the heavily made-up “celebrity” blogger with flowers in her long fuchsia hair, looking like a cross between a plastic anime doll and a sinister Greek nymph.

Beneath the disconcerting photo are the words, “Bitching now comes in bite-sized pieces.”



Alamak. This is going to be awkward.

I quickly reread my old columns to see if I had written anything bitchy about her.

In December, I wrote that Wendy Cheng is “better known as Xiaxue, which she says means ‘snowing’, but could also be read as ‘sia suay’, which in Hokkien means something she probably doesn’t intend”.

According to the authoritative Coxford Singlish Dictionary, “sia suay” is Hokkien for “to embarrass”.

That’s not so bad, is it?

So what if after that article came out, someone in the Hardware Zone forum started a thread called “SM Ong say Xiaxue can also be called as Sia Suay” (sic)?

That was not what I said at all. Those irresponsible netizens, they just like making stuff up, like that fake Prime Minister’s Office announcement.

Anyway, Sia Suay... I mean, Xiaxue became my Twitter follower last Sunday.

That was a day after the fun-size Nuffnang influencer unleashed her “Big Gushcloud Exposé 2”, which led eventually to an apology from the Group CEO of Singtel, which also “terminated the services” of the subject of Xiaxue’s big two-part exposé, Gushcloud.

The smoking gun is a leaked Gushcloud brief instructing its bloggers to complain about Singtel’s competitors, M1 and StarHub, and “drive sign-ups” for Singtel’s new Youth Plan.



At first, Gushcloud shrugged off the incriminating brief in a Facebook post:

“The brief is not meant to be read in isolation without the full context and verbal briefings given by Gushcloud. Singtel’s brief for the campaign was to focus on key differentiators in the services and strengths. We apologise for any misunderstanding.”

Then as if to show that it’s really no big deal, Gushcloud added:

“Now back to the planning for August’s extra long weekend!”

Singtel also went into denial mode at first:

“Singtel wishes to clarify that it did not issue the brief… It is not our practice to run negative campaigns against any individual or organization. This is not the way we manage our marketing promotions.”

That turned out to be not so true days later when Singtel group CEO Chua Sock Koong apologised:

“We regret that a Singtel employee who worked on this campaign did not adhere to our professional standards and values.”

Gushcloud CEO Vincent Ha also posted a mea culpa of sorts on Facebook, this time without any mention of planning for the long National Day weekend, but he still couldn’t resist a swipe at my new fuchsia-haired Twitter follower.

Mr Ha wrote:

“We have let our influencers and our client down...

“That being said, we do not condone the actions of Ms Wendy Cheng, because we feel it has done far more harm than good to our industry.”

In other words, I think what Mr Ha means is that Xiaxue had “sia suay” their industry.

Well, of course, you don’t condone the actions of Ms Cheng – she just got a major client to fire your ass!

You know the viral video of the rude taxi passenger verbally abusing the taxi driver that was uploaded by the cabby’s daughter?



Imagine if the passenger apologised for his abusive behaviour, then added:

“That being said, I do not condone the actions of the taxi driver’s daughter, because I feel it has done far more harm than good to the image of rude taxi passengers.”

But while the cabby’s daughter has been lauded for highlighting the abuse that taxi drivers like her father often suffer, it seems to me that Xiaxue has not been given enough credit for highlighting the abuse that Singtel’s competitors suffered from Gushcloud’s bloggers.

In fact, if you couldn’t stand Xiaxue before, you probably can’t stand her even more now that she managed to get the Group CEO of the country’s largest telco to beg for forgiveness.

If Xiaxue’s head was too big for her micro-body before, her bright-coloured hair-covered head should be even bigger now.



Speaking of her size, in the earlier column, I also wrote:

“Such is Xiaxue’s intimidating stature in the blogosphere that despite her under-1.5m frame, she’s the Goliath in her online brawl with Gushcloud, even though she is just one person against a whole company.”

Except unlike in the Bible, in this case, Goliath won.

I think I’ll tweet that.

- Published in The New Paper, 22 March 2015



EARLIER: How Xiaxue made Roy Ngerng look good

My apologies to Vincent Ha and Goliath... I mean, Xiaxue

I want to ask, how did I get dragged into this?

But the thing is, I sorta dragged myself into this.

And what is "this"? The continuing Xiaxue-Gushcloud saga, of course.

On Saturday, Xiaxue (or Wendy Cheng) published a sequel to her Big Gushcloud Exposé.

Once again, local netizens went a little nuts over it. But a bit less nuts than before because after all, it's just a sequel. Many were also too busy hunting down the rude Chai Chee taxi passenger to crucify.

So a website called MustShareNews provided a summary of Xiaxue's second Gushcloud exposé as well as some commentary.

Then yesterday, another website, Mothership.sg, commented on the commentary by MustShareNews.

Mothership.sg said that MustShareNews covered the saga with a "defensive spin" and was downplaying it.

Mothership.sg also alleged that the reason MustShareNews was doing so is that MustShareNews belongs to Gushcloud, a fact that was not disclosed by MustShareNews, thus putting MustShareNews' objectivity in doubt.

To prove that MustShareNews is owned by Gushcloud, Mothership.sg reproduced a screenshot of the e-mail Gushcloud CEO Vincent Ha wrote to me asking me to be a contributor to MustShareNews.



And that was how I found myself dragged into the saga.

It's my own fault for publishing Mr Ha's e-mail on this blog in December in the wake of Xiaxue's first Big Gushcloud Exposé.

A part of me regrets publishing Mr Ha's e-mail because he had written to me privately and I betrayed that confidence.

Publishing a private e-mail someone writes to you is not cool and I want to apologise to Mr Ha for that. I guess I was caught up in all the leaked information about Gushcloud and wanted to be part of it, even though Mr Ha's e-mail to me is really quite innocuous.

That is, until Mothership.sg dredged it up as evidence that MustShareNews may be a little biased in matters regarding Gushcloud.



After I blogged about his e-mail in December, Mr Ha actually wrote back to me and apologised for not responding to my reply to his e-mail back in September. He seemed to have gotten the impression that I was upset with him for that, which I wasn't at all.

I was more upset with myself for giving the impression that I came up with The Noose, which I didn't at all.

But now I'm a little upset about something else.

So I tweeted about how surprised I was to be mentioned in Mothership.sg. And to my even bigger surprise, Xiaxue tweeted me back.

@sm0ng time to share the article. Goliath commands you to. 😄
— ♥‿♥ Xiaxue ★彡 (@Xiaxue) March 15, 2015

@sm0ng I have printed out that cartoon of me looming over enemies and sent it to ICA to replace my IC photo but ICA rejected it.
— ♥‿♥ Xiaxue ★彡 (@Xiaxue) March 15, 2015

This is getting awkward.

The "Goliath" thing is a reference to how I described her in my not-so-flattering New Paper column about her. The cartoon she mentioned is the one drawn by a New Paper artist to illustrate the column.



You know, when I write my "funny" column about local personalities such as Xiaxue, Glenn Ong and Baey Yam Keng, I like to pretend that no way they would read it. Lately, it's getting harder to keep up that pretence.

Glenn Ong has tweeted me. I went running with BYK. And now Xiaxue is following me on Twitter.

So, so, so awkward.

How did I get dragged into this?

I dragged myself into this.

Now how do I drag myself out?

Anyone got a slingshot?

Where's SMRT Ltd (Feedback) when you need them?

Oh yah, Xiaxue filed a Protection Order against them.



EARLIER:

How Xiaxue made Roy Ngerng look good

What exposé? Xiaxue thanks SMRT Ltd (Feedback) for growing up

UPDATE: Xiaxue gets Singtel & Gushcloud to apologise: 'More harm than good'?

What exposé? Xiaxue thanks SMRT Ltd (Feedback) for growing up

Once again, let me start with an apology.

A reader named Steven e-mailed me to complain about my column about Xiaxue last week.



He wrote:

“This woman Xiaxue has no brains and no skills and adds no economic value. Just a bloody waste of time listening to her. I don't know why the mainstream media even bother to give her publicity.”

I’m apologising because I’m going to give Xiaxue a little more publicity this week — although today’s column is more about SMRT Ltd (Feedback).

Not affiliated with the real SMRT Corporation at all, the online entity known as SMRT Ltd (Feedback) was started as a joke to make fun of the spate of MRT breakdowns in December 2011, which were so bad a public inquiry was held.

More than three years later, SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa is gone, but SMRT Ltd (Feedback) is still around to troll unsuspecting commuters who write in to complain about SMRT train and bus services.



But nowadays, SMRT Ltd (Feedback) is too famous (or infamous) for this to happen much any more. Blame Mr Jover Chew.

As you may recall, in November, a Vietnamese tourist was humiliated in Mr Chew’s mobile phone shop in Sim Lim Square.

SMRT Ltd (Feedback) published Mr Chew’s address and phone number online, which led to Mr Chew and his wife being harassed.

Some lauded SMRT Ltd (Feedback) for giving the vilified phone salesman what he deserved. Others decried the online vigilantism.

By then, SMRT Ltd (Feedback) had transcended its original prankster mission and found a higher calling as the social media equivalent of Charles Bronson from Death Wish.



After dispensing with Mr Chew, SMRT Ltd (Feedback) needed a new target and eventually set its sights on a company called Data Register.

What is Data Register and what did it do to earn SMRT Ltd (Feedback)’s wrath?

That’s a bit complicated and boring.

What Data Register does is send out letters to businesses asking them to verify information on its database. And if they did, Data Register would send them a bill.

Last year, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) filed 104 charges against Data Register for failing to display the company name and registration number in its correspondences. Acra also issued a few public alerts on the company.

But some felt the authorities weren’t doing enough.

So on Dec 18, SMRT Ltd (Feedback) announced on Facebook:

“We are going to embark on the next ops against Data Register Pte Ltd.”

But alas, the “ops” didn't happen. Why? Because a more... uh... attractive target emerged.

On Dec 23, blogger Xiaxue (real name Wendy Cheng) published an “exposé” on a company called Gushcloud, a competitor of Nuffnang, which is the company Xiaxue is with.



It quickly became the talk of the local blogosphere. Even I wrote about her, prompting Steven's e-mail.

On Dec 27, SMRT Ltd (Feedback) made another Facebook announcement:

“Ok Xiaxue is bloody annoying acting all innocent and shit. 10,000 likes to this post and we'll do a ‘Xiaxue Expose’ to wrap up 2014.”

The post got more than 30,000 likes.

After much build-up, SMRT Ltd (Feedback) published its statistics-filled “Xiaxue & Nuffnang Exposé (Part I)” on New Year’s eve.

But it wasn’t what fans expected. One commented: “That’s it? Your big expose is that Xiaxue is brilliant at picking timed fights and bad at accounting?”

To its disappointed fans, SMRT Ltd (Feedback) responded:

“If you guys were expecting the expose to be Xiaxue’s address, phone number, her husband company boss contact etc. her personal life, email records — don’t bother.

Yes we have them all. But we don’t roll that way now. It's 2015. Let's grow up.”

Gasp! Has SMRT Ltd (Feedback) mellowed with age?

Did the criticisms about vigilantism get to the pranksters?

Or is it the Protection from Harassment Act passed in Parliament last year?

Or have they realised that with great power comes great responsibility?



Is that why they held back with Xiaxue? Sure, many people can’t stand her, like my reader Steven. But Xiaxue is no Jover Chew.

In her otherwise dismissive rebuttal to SMRT Ltd (Feedback)’s so-called exposé, even Xiaxue thanked SMRT Ltd (Feedback) for its restraint in her own catty way:

“Thank you, Pussies, for not going so low. My family and friends are innocent and should not be involved. Good Pussies.”

You know who else should be thankful? The folks at Data Register.

They seemed to have dodged a bullet.

For now.

Will there be a part two?

The sequels to Death Wish were terrible.

- Published in The New Paper, 4 January 2015

@sm0ng is the first columnist from The New Paper that actually made sense about us.
— SMRT Feedback (@smrtsg) January 5, 2015

EARLIER:

'Cheeky fella': PM Lee finds out about SMRT Ltd (Feedback)

SMRT Ltd (Feedback): From troll to online vigilante to just another blogger?

How Xiaxue made Roy Ngerng look good


UPDATE: Xiaxue's Protection Order Against SMRT Ltd (Feedback)

'Cheeky fella': PM Lee finds out about SMRT Ltd (Feedback)

Imagine you’re the Prime Minister of Singapore.

Here you are, minding your own business, giving your New Year message and welcoming 2015 at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park wearing a balloon hat.

Then you find out you have been called out in a blog by SMRT Ltd (Feedback) in a post entitled “The Xiaxue & Nuffnang Exposé (Part I)”.

Wait, what?

“What did SMRT say about me? Call Desmond Kuek, CEO of SMRT, and tell him I demand an explanation! Is there a part two to this exposé?”

Mr Kuek hurries to the Prime Minister’s office.

You show him the blog.

“Oh, that’s not ours,” he says.

“I’m told it’s by SMRT Ltd (Feedback),” you say.

“Uh… yes. It’s a spoof site. They’re just using our name, but it’s not us,” he says.

You can’t believe what you’re hearing. “And you let them get away with it? How long have this been going on?”

“Just over three years. Since The Great MRT Breakdown of December 2011.”

“So long?”

“To be fair,” he says, “I have been CEO only since October 2012. You should talk to Saw Phaik Hwa. She was CEO then. I have her number. You want me to call her for you?”

You give Mr Kuek a look.

“Tell me more about this SMRT Ltd (Feedback),” you request calmly.

“Sure, have you been to Sim Lim Square?” he asks.

You give him another look.

“Anyway,” he continues, “in November, there was this big hoo-ha over this Vietnamese tourist reduced to tears at this Sim Lim Square shop called Mobile Air. The guy who ran the shop is this fella called Jover Chew.”



“Yah, I remember him. Did his parents actually name him Jover?” you ask.

“I can check," he says. “Anyway, a lot of people hated him. So SMRT Ltd (Feedback) published his phone number and address. He and his wife ended up getting harassed, and SMRT Ltd (Feedback) became famous. People called them vigilantes.”

You interrupt: “You mean like Charles Bronson in Death Wish?”



Mr Kuek gives you a blur look.

“Never mind,” you say. “Continue.”

He continues: “After the Sim Lim saga, SMRT Ltd (Feedback) was going to target a company called Data Register.”

“What’s that?” you ask.

“It’s a bit complicated,” he says. “Last year, ACRA brought charges against Data Register for failing to display the company name and registration number in its correspondences with other companies.

“But it doesn’t matter because, in the end, SMRT Ltd (Feedback) didn’t do anything to Data Register.”

“Why?” you ask.

“Because of Xiaxue,” he says.

“Xiaxue?”

“You know, the blogger? She’s with this company called Nuffnang. She’s a PAP supporter.”

You sigh. “We get all kinds.”



“Anyway,” he continues, “Xiaxue published this exposé about Gushcloud, which is Nuffnang’s competitor. So SMRT Ltd (Feedback) decided to do an exposé on Xiaxue and Nuffnang just because they find her annoying.”

“But how did I get dragged into this?” you ask. “I have nothing to do with these people.”

Mr Kuek explains: “In the exposé, SMRT Ltd (Feedback) published the number of inactive and suspicious or empty accounts that Xiaxue’s Twitter followers have and as a comparison, they also highlighted your numbers. She has 68 per cent ‘good’ followers while you have 46 per cent.”





“And they called me a ‘cheeky fella’! What do they mean by that?” you ask.

“They’re sort of implying that you bought fake followers, but I think it’s meant tongue-in-cheek, if you’ll pardon the pun.”

“What pun?” you ask.

“Never mind,” he says. “Anyway, as Xiaxue pointed out, you’re the leader of our country, both a Cambridge and Harvard graduate, with countless achievements under your belt. Who would be so stupid as to believe that you buy Twitter followers?”

“Then where do all these fake followers come from?” you ask.

“They’re like spam” he says. “Everybody gets them. Even Barack Obama. It's really no big deal.”



You think about it.

“So what are you going to do about these SMRT Ltd (Feedback) jokers? You're going to let them keep using your name?” you ask the SMRT CEO.

“We’re working on it,” he says.

“Yah, like how you’re working on preventing train delays. Happy new year, Desmond,” you say as you dismisses him.



“Happy new year, Prime Minister,” he says and leaves.

You quickly check your Twitter.

- Unpublished


EARLIER: SMRT Ltd (Feedback): From troll to online vigilante to just another blogger?

SMRT Ltd (Feedback): From troll to online vigilante to just another blogger?

In November, online spoofers SMRT Ltd (Feedback), who have been around since December 2011, finally broke into the mainstream with the Sim Lim Square-Mobile Air-Jover Chew saga.

SMRT Ltd (Feedback) were mentioned several times by The Straits Times:

Nov 5: Netizens expose details of Sim Lim Square mobile shop owner who bullied Vietnamese tourist

Nov 10: Online vigilante group in Sim Lim saga says its Paypal account was suspended

Nov 11: Man files police report after fake web article claims he was arrested for online vigilantism

Nov 22: Even Jover Chew deserves due process of law

Yahoo noted SMRT Ltd (Feedback)'s transformation "from troll group To Internet vigilantes".



Feeling empowered after the Sim Lim saga, SMRT Ltd (Feedback) looked around to see who else to unleash its special brand of online Charles Bronson-type justice on and settled on Data Register Pte Ltd.

That was on Dec 18.

Then on Dec 23, Xiaxue happened and no one cared about Data Register anymore.

So SMRT Ltd (Feedback) swung their gun turret around and set their sights on a new target.

Post by SMRT Ltd (Feedback).

Online gawkers got their popcorn ready.

Jover Chew-slayer SMRT Ltd (Feedback) versus Tyre Queen Xiaxue - what fight fan wouldn't salivate at the prospect?

So after much build-up, SMRT Ltd (Feedback) finally released their Xiaxue & Nuffnang Exposé (Part I) yesterday.

It's long and filled with charts and graphs, not unlike XX's Gushcloud expose and Gushcloud's "official response" to XX.

It also repeats some analysis on another blog regarding trade receivable and trade payable. Who knew SMRT Ltd (Feedback) were such accounting nerds?

As someone commented: "This is an... exposé? Even my shrivelled orange was juicier."

SMRT Ltd (Feedback)'s retort to their disappointed followers:

"If you guys were expecting the expose to be Xiaxue's address, phone number, her husband company boss contact etc. her personal life, email records - don't bother.

"Yes we have them all. But we don't roll that way now. It's 2015. Let's grow up."

Even XX acknowledged this chivalry in her just-as-long charts-and-graphs-filled response to SMRT Ltd (Feedback)'s response to her exposé:

"I give credit when it's due: Thank you, Pussies, for not going so low. My family and friends are innocent and should not be involved. Good Pussies."

But she still called them vaginas. Or is it cats? Anyway, "pussies" is definitely an insult.

Post by SMRT Ltd (Feedback).

Less than five hours later, SMRT Ltd (Feedback) responded to her response to their response to her exposé with more charts and graphs. This could go on.

It's very unlike SMRT Ltd (Feedback) to bring themselves down to XX's level and fight her on her terms, ie all those charts and graphs. One would've expected something more subversive from a group who named themselves after a real-life public transport corporation as a joke and kept that name after the joke has been forgotten.

But is SMRT Ltd (Feedback) justified in targeting XX in the first place?

Sure, she is "bloody annoying acting all innocent and shit", but she's no Jover Chew.

But then SMRT Ltd (Feedback) also appear to be pulling their punches with XX. It's no longer online vigilantism - it's just another blogger analysing the XX-Gushcloud saga, which quite a few bloggers have already done.

If not for the AirAsia disaster, the saga would probably get more coverage in the mainstream press, but for now, the SMRT Ltd (Feedback)-XX bloodless feud remains confined in the back alleys of cyberspace.



The folks at Gushcloud must be grateful to SMRT Ltd (Feedback) for doing their fighting for them. And Data Register Pte Ltd seemed to have dodged a bullet.

Meanwhile, we await SMRT Ltd (Feedback)'s Xiaxue & Nuffnang Exposé (Part II).

As SMRT Ltd (Feedback) admitted: "At the end of the day, this isn’t a battle of numbers or ethics. It’s who has a bigger ego."


EARLIER: How Xiaxue made Roy Ngerng look good

UPDATE: 'Cheeky fella': PM Lee finds out about SMRT Ltd (Feedback)

How Xiaxue made Roy Ngerng look good

So this is Christmas. And what have you done?

Well, two days before Christmas, I published a 5,000-word blog post, accusing an online marketing company of inflating its earnings and other misdeeds, and ignited a “blog war”.

Then I Instagrammed a shot of me wearing a headband with the words "Fuck off" (from Obscene Headbands “R” Us) and showing my middle fingers to the world next to photos of my oh-so-cuuuuuute 21-month-old son named Dashiel.



You see, I’m not only a badass online crusader for truth but a loving mother as well.

Of course, when I say “I”, I don’t mean me.

I mean Wendy Cheng, better known as Xiaxue, which she says means “snowing”, but could also be read as “sia suay”, which in Hokkien means something she probably doesn’t intend.

Such is XX’s intimidating stature in the blogosphere that despite her under-1.5m frame, she’s the Goliath in her online brawl with Gushcloud, even though she is just one person against a whole company.



Before her blog post, I (as in me, not XX) had never even heard of Gushcloud.

I might have come across the name of the company before, but it quickly left my mind like a cloud blown away by a gust of wind.

But thanks to XX’s “big Gushcloud exposé”, I now know I have another option in Gushcloud in case I want to promote my slimming services and think Nuffnang is charging me too much for an advertorial. Also, XX, who is represented by Nuffnang, just wrote a very nasty review of my slimming services.

Okay, I realise many of you may have never heard of Nuffnang. It’s sort of like Gushcloud’s big competitor and has been around longer.

When I first came across the name Nuffnang, I imagined the company sold toy guns that shot sponge-tipped bullets.



I now run Nuffnang ads on my blog. I used to run Google ads until Google froze me out of my account because Google mistook me for a pornographer.

That might be because my URL is smong.net and if you look up “smong” in Urban Dictionary, the word apparently means “extra large penis”.

Hey, if it’s on the Internet, it must be true.

As it turns out, XX’s blog post is not just an exposé on Gushcloud. The chain of events has exposed the bitchy, shallow, stats-obsessed world of the beautiful young people who blog for a living and the people who represent them with its own parallel value system.

And you thought you were obsessed with the number of “likes” you got for the picture of your cat you posted on Facebook. For these folks, it’s their livelihood.

The leaked Gushcloud group whatsapp chat log only further confirms the bitchiness.

But I’ve never heard of these so-called “celebrity bloggers” or “influencers”. Who is this Yan Kay Kay, whom XX has kissed and broken up with? It ain’t exactly Zoe Tay versus Fann Wong.



There’s a saying: Being famous on Instagram is like being rich in Monopoly. It can also apply to bloggers.

As far as I’m concerned, there are only two bloggers in Singapore who matter (and who don’t blog about food): Lee Kin Mun, better known as Mr Brown, and dammit, Xiaxue.

Now there's a celebrity blogger deathmatch I would go to Sistic and buy tickets for my whole family to see.

But this year, another blogger has become more famous than both of them.

According to SimilarWeb.com, this relatively new blogger has an estimated 150,000 monthly visits while Mr Brown has 85,000 and XX 80,000 (for xiaxue.blogspot.sg). I have a measly 14,500.

Yet, this blogger is represented by neither Gushcloud nor Nuffnang. Maybe he needs to get a boob job.

In XX’s blog post exposing Gushcloud, she even followed this blogger’s modus operandi with her overuse of charts and graphs.



And while Gushcloud only sought “legal advice” against XX, this blogger has been taken to court and lost.

I am, of course, talking about Mr Roy Ngerng.

How come no one calls him a “celebrity blogger” or “influencer”?

Whether you agree or disagree with Mr Ngerng, his quixotic quest to get the Government to #returnourCPF is at least a cause all Singaporeans can relate to, making XX’s Gushcloud vendetta seems rather self-serving in comparison.

Leave it to Dashiel’s mum to make an alleged special-needs kids heckler look good.

Gushcloud has refuted XX’s accusations with its co-founder Althea Lim calling XX a liar and adding: “If you truly believe that you are not lying in your blog post on Gushcloud, I invite you to sue me FOR CALLING YOU A LIAR. And if you do not sue me, then I guess that speaks for itself.”

Looks like XX is not the only one spoiling for a fight.

Using Ms Lim’s logic, if Gushcloud doesn’t sue XX, does it mean XX’s allegations are true too?



The company’s CEO and other co-founder, Mr Vincent Ha, was more conciliatory, claiming that XX “is human too and she has her own opinions”. He wants to “live and let live”.

But is Xiaxue willing to give peace a chance?

Blog war is over if you want it.

#FaithinLennon.

- Published in The New Paper, 28 December 2014

Hi SM,

This woman Xiaxue has no brains and no skills and adds no economic value. Just a bloody waste of time listening to her - I don't know why we in the mainstream media even bother to give publicity to her.

Tks, Steven

EARLIER: Ha! Vincent Ha of Gushcloud contacted me in September about this

UPDATE:

It's now SMRT Ltd (Feedback) versus Xiaxue

My apologies to Vincent Ha and Goliath... I mean, Xiaxue

Xiaxue wins 'blog war'

Ha! Vincent Ha of Gushcloud contacted me in September about this

The Like everyone else, I've been reading about The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Two Hashtags between #FaithinGushcloud and #FaithinXiaxue. (I'll leave it up to you to decide who the hobbit is in this scenario.)



I have to admit, before this week, I've never heard of Gushcloud. I have, of course, heard of Xiaxue and Nuffnang. (Full disclosure: I run Nuffnang ads on this blog.)

The name of the Gushcloud CEO, Vincent Ha, however sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it at first.

And then I remembered I may have received an e-mail from a Vincent Ha once. I searched my inbox and found this:



Ha!

So three months ago, Vincent Ha of Gushcloud asked me to be a "contributor" for a new site called MustShareNews.com.

I was flattered.

But now that I've read about Gushcloud, I'm hurt I wasn't asked be one of its "influencers". I guess I'm not pretty enough.

A photo posted by Gushcloud Singapore (@gushcloud_sg) on Dec 12, 2014 at 1:24am PST

Or have enough page views.

With only 398 Facebook "Likes" and 52 Instagram followers, I am in no danger of being accused of buying "Likes" or followers.

Anyway, I replied to Mr Ha that I can't contribute to his or other sites since I work for The New Paper as a full-time SPH employee.

I was also disturbed that he got the impression that I had come up with The Noose TV show, most likely from this blog post: Speaking of The Noose, see the PowerPoint that started it all.

I want to make it clear that I did not come up with The Noose. I only created the PowerPoint for it. My then MediaCorp colleague Prem Anand created The Noose.



After sending him my reply, I never heard from Mr Ha again. (UPDATE: He has since responded after this blog post was published.)

Which is just as well, I supposed.

Otherwise, I could be on Team #FaithinGushcloud now.

Ha!

Truth be told, I would rather be on Team #FaithinXiaxue. Not that I have anything against Gushcloud or Mr Ha (except that he may not think I'm pretty enough).

The thing is, I'm not afraid of Gushcloud, but I really don't want to get on the bad side of Xiaxue Baggins.

She can be more terrifying than Smaug.



COLUMNS:

How Xiaxue made Roy Ngerng look good

What exposé? Xiaxue thanks SMRT Ltd (Feedback) for growing up

UPDATE: My apologies to Vincent Ha