As celebrations for the New Year came to pass, another sort of revelry unfolded online in the form of a highly anticipated showdown between two Singaporean social media giants — in one corner stands hyper-prominent blogger Wendy Cheng aka Xiaxue, and on the other, infamous troll site and vigilante group SMRT Ltd (Feedback).
If everything so far has been too long; didn't read, here's a summary of events.
Dec 23, 2014
Xiaxue drops a huge exposé article accusing social influencer agency Gushcloud (rivals of Xiaxue's Nuffnang) of alleged transgressions of business ethics, including inflating earnings and viewership statistics to the media and clientele, purchasing false YouTube views and subscriptions, manipulting financial reports and other nefarious practices that question Gushcloud's legitimacy.
Post goes viral on the interwebs, Gushcloud personnel and their network of bloggers retaliate with legal threats, unsatisfying responses and a #faithingushcloud hashtag to boot.
Dec 24, 2014
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Post by SMRT Ltd (Feedback).
SMRT Ltd (Feedback) gets into the fray, and pokes fun at the insignificance of the squabble, publishing statistics of their own online reach, dwarfing the collective reach of Nuffnang's 7.5 million people, inclusive of Xiaxue's. They continue making fun of Xiaxue, while she generally ignores them.
Dec 27, 2014
The trolls get sick of Xiaxue's antics. Promises to run an exposé on her if they get 10,000 'likes' on their Facebook post. They achieve 10,000 in a couple of hours. #FaithinLupCheong was set in motion.
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Post by SMRT Ltd (Feedback).
Dec 30, 2014
SMRT Ltd calls out Xiaxue and Nuffnang's alleged bribery — namely asking people within Gushcloud's network to spill some dirt by offering cash in exchange. They provide a sneak peak of their exposé with Nuffnang's purported financial troubles.
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Post by SMRT Ltd (Feedback).
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Post by SMRT Ltd (Feedback).
Xiaxue laughs in their faces, challenging them to find actual substance in their exposé. Later she gets an alert about an attempted hack. SMRT Ltd denies involvement, and promises something big.
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Post by SMRT Ltd (Feedback).
Dec 31, 2014
SMRT Ltd posts some unreliable statistics on the Facebook page, and gets called out for it by Xiaxue.
The first part of their exposé on Xiaxue and Nuffnang gets released on Wordpress later in the afternoon, promising a second one in 2015.
In it, they accuse her of being a hypocrite — their investigations into her viewership analytics and patterns seem to indicate that whenever she gets product sponsorship she finds someone to intimidate and persecute in order to get her viewcount up. Apparently, she is also guilty of buying fake followers on social media, and that the Gushcloud expose was carried out because Nuffnang are in a worse financial position than their rivals.
Jan 1, 2015
A few hours in to the new year, Xiaxue comes out to defend herself, calling SMRT Ltd 'pussies' for being anonymous. Tears down their accusations and point out loopholes in the credibility of their statistics and arguments. Believes that their attack on her is personal, just because she blogged her support for the ruling People's Action Party in 2012. Insists that they are evil bullies, nearly driving her to tears when they made fun of her newborn son. She declares the SMRT Ltd exposé "a complete fail".
Later on SMRT Ltd countered her proclamations with Part 1.5 of their Xiaxue and Nuffnang Exposé, delving deeper into statistical data and accuracy, still maintaining that she has been manipulating her viewership by inflating statistics. Calls her self-indulgent for proudly proclaiming herself as Asia Pacific's top blogger, even though the awards were presented by Nuffnang (the very company that she has shareholding and voting rights in) and a hypocrite for being upset when people make fun of her son, when she herself has done so to others in the past.
On her end, Xiaxue announces that she will not be responding to them anymore, comparing them to baboons of #subparintellect.
#throwbackdash pre haircut!! Missing his silky hair! ps: I won't be responding to trolls anymore because their response is grasping at straws, laughable and have clearly shown they are incapable of coherent logical arguments. I feel like I'm engaging with baboons. You can read a baboon the most beautiful poetry and all the baboon responds is ooh ooh ah ah me want food. That's how I feel right now. #subparintellect
A photo posted by Wendy Cheng ❄️ 下雪 (@xiaxue) on Jan 1, 2015 at 3:43am PST
The saga continues.
Photo: Facebook; Twitter screengrab
As celebrations for the New Year came to pass, another sort of revelry unfolded online in the form of a highly anticipated showdown between two Singaporean social media giants — in one corner stands hyper-prominent blogger Wendy Cheng aka Xiaxue, and on the other, infamous troll site and vigilante group SMRT Ltd (Feedback).
If everything so far has been too long; didn't read, here's a summary of events.
Dec 23, 2014
Xiaxue drops a huge exposé article accusing social influencer agency Gushcloud (rivals of Xiaxue's Nuffnang) of alleged transgressions of business ethics, including inflating earnings and viewership statistics to the media and clientele, purchasing false YouTube views and subscriptions, manipulting financial reports and other nefarious practices that question Gushcloud's legitimacy.
Post goes viral on the interwebs, Gushcloud personnel and their network of bloggers retaliate with legal threats, unsatisfying responses and a #faithingushcloud hashtag to boot.
Dec 24, 2014
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Post by SMRT Ltd (Feedback).
SMRT Ltd (Feedback) gets into the fray, and pokes fun at the insignificance of the squabble, publishing statistics of their own online reach, dwarfing the collective reach of Nuffnang's 7.5 million people, inclusive of Xiaxue's. They continue making fun of Xiaxue, while she generally ignores them.
Dec 27, 2014
The trolls get sick of Xiaxue's antics. Promises to run an exposé on her if they get 10,000 'likes' on their Facebook post. They achieve 10,000 in a couple of hours. #FaithinLupCheong was set in motion.
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
Post by SMRT Ltd (Feedback).
Dec 30, 2014
SMRT Ltd calls out Xiaxue and Nuffnang's alleged bribery — namely asking people within Gushcloud's network to spill some dirt by offering cash in exchange. They provide a sneak peak of their exposé with Nuffnang's purported financial troubles.
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
Post by SMRT Ltd (Feedback).
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
Post by SMRT Ltd (Feedback).
Xiaxue laughs in their faces, challenging them to find actual substance in their exposé. Later she gets an alert about an attempted hack. SMRT Ltd denies involvement, and promises something big.
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
Post by SMRT Ltd (Feedback).
Dec 31, 2014
SMRT Ltd posts some unreliable statistics on the Facebook page, and gets called out for it by Xiaxue.
The first part of their exposé on Xiaxue and Nuffnang gets released on Wordpress later in the afternoon, promising a second one in 2015.
In it, they accuse her of being a hypocrite — their investigations into her viewership analytics and patterns seem to indicate that whenever she gets product sponsorship she finds someone to intimidate and persecute in order to get her viewcount up. Apparently, she is also guilty of buying fake followers on social media, and that the Gushcloud expose was carried out because Nuffnang are in a worse financial position than their rivals.
Jan 1, 2015
A few hours in to the new year, Xiaxue comes out to defend herself, calling SMRT Ltd 'pussies' for being anonymous. Tears down their accusations and point out loopholes in the credibility of their statistics and arguments. Believes that their attack on her is personal, just because she blogged her support for the ruling People's Action Party in 2012. Insists that they are evil bullies, nearly driving her to tears when they made fun of her newborn son. She declares the SMRT Ltd exposé "a complete fail".
Later on SMRT Ltd countered her proclamations with Part 1.5 of their Xiaxue and Nuffnang Exposé, delving deeper into statistical data and accuracy, still maintaining that she has been manipulating her viewership by inflating statistics. Calls her self-indulgent for proudly proclaiming herself as Asia Pacific's top blogger, even though the awards were presented by Nuffnang (the very company that she has shareholding and voting rights in) and a hypocrite for being upset when people make fun of her son, when she herself has done so to others in the past.
On her end, Xiaxue announces that she will not be responding to them anymore, comparing them to baboons of #subparintellect.
#throwbackdash pre haircut!! Missing his silky hair! ps: I won't be responding to trolls anymore because their response is grasping at straws, laughable and have clearly shown they are incapable of coherent logical arguments. I feel like I'm engaging with baboons. You can read a baboon the most beautiful poetry and all the baboon responds is ooh ooh ah ah me want food. That's how I feel right now. #subparintellect
A photo posted by Wendy Cheng ❄️ 下雪 (@xiaxue) on Jan 1, 2015 at 3:43am PST
The saga continues.
Photo: Facebook; Twitter screengrab