Rational online interaction necessary for civil society

By Yu Ning Source:Global Times Published: 2013-7-31 0:08:01

Chen Mingming, vice governor of Southwest China's Guizhou Province, recently sparked controversy in cyberspace. When he commented on Weibo on the Sunday Miami shooting rampage, some netizens suggested Chen focus on China's problems rather than those of other countries. Chen replied that some Chinese "curse their home country every day," and branded these netizens "human scum."

After strong public reactions, Chen made an apology Monday for using "inappropriate words" in his public comments, saying he, as a provincial-level official, should be more cautious about online expression. However, most Web users still wanted to know how a government official could call citizens "scum."

Chen's improper remarks should be condemned, since whoever the users are, online expression is supposed to be civilized. This is a basic requirement and a bottom line that every user needs to stick to.

Sound online interaction between the public and officials calls for a rational attitude and tolerance from both sides. In recent years, many government Weibo accounts have emerged as platforms to aid communication between the public and officials, but those established accounts have been criticized for not functioning effectively.

Government agencies and officials haven't found and mastered effective approaches to communicate with the public. Government Weibo accounts are mostly public billboards, while some officials choose to keep silent and avoid commenting on sensitive issues on their Weibo accounts.

Meanwhile, Chinese netizens are usually skeptical in regard to officials. They use the officials' Weibo accounts as places to vent their anger toward the government.

Wu Hao, former deputy director of the publicity department of the provincial Party committee of Yunnan Province, the first official at the department-level to open a real-name Weibo account at the end of 2009, closed his account several times because of vicious verbal attacks. Wu later withdrew to become an anonymous user.

Meng Jianzhu, secretary of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee called for more attention on monitoring and participating in public opinion through new media such as Weibo and WeChat last Friday.

Officials usually draw lots of followers on Weibo due to their status, and they have the potential to become public opinion leaders.

Officials like Chen should think twice about how they could take on this role and at the same time they should be given more encouragement and tolerance from netizens.



Posted in: Observer

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