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After complaints, health commission in China to tone down on its choice of words used on social media

Responding to the complaint, the commission said it will refrain from using offensive words in the future and will only publish properly worded and popular articles to avoid offending its followers. ― Reuters pic
Responding to the complaint, the commission said it will refrain from using offensive words in the future and will only publish properly worded and popular articles to avoid offending its followers. ― Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 7 — The official account of the Shenzhen Health Commission on WeChat has promised to tone down its wordings after some social media users complained about its use of crass words.

In a message left on the People’s Daily online message board for the secretary of Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee, Wang Weizhong, one social media user said some medical institutions’ WeChat accounts use vulgar words to draw reactions and suggested rectification, Global Times reported.

To prove their point, the social media user sent pictures and examples singling out Shenzhen Health Commission and Peking University Shenzhen Hospital.

Responding to the complaint, the commission said it will refrain from using offensive words in the future and will only publish properly worded and popular articles to avoid offending its followers.

In spite of that, many social media users still supported the commission, saying their headlines were down to earth and easy for them to understand scientific issues.

Some social media users said the Shenzhen Health Commission’s account has always published articles in a lively and interesting way and this attracted many followers.

For example, on December 1 which marked World AIDS Day, the commission released an article titled “Having sex without condom is NG! 1,678 new cases of AIDS in Shenzhen and 60 per cent of them were transmitted from male to male.”

The article went viral online.

Another article on the same day, “I fell in love with my muse online, took off my pants and found it was a man! I’m afraid of getting AIDS,” also triggered a hot discussion online.

Social media users said that in recent years, many official accounts of authorities have become too serious and failed to play their due role in effectively disseminating information.

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