SINGAPORE: When a person gets into a dispute in public with someone else, say a vendor or shop staff, does this give them the right to record a video of their disagreement and then upload it on social media?
Most Singaporeans online seem to think not, unless the circumstances are serious and warrant getting the incident on record.
When a man took a video of a female stall holder as they got into an argument and posted it on the popular Singapore Incidents Facebook page, most commenters told him he was out of line.
The video, which was posted on Feb 21, involved an incident that took place at a coffee shop in Bukit Panjang.
The man who took the video cannot be seen on camera, although he can be heard, but the woman he had a disagreement with can clearly be seen, and she took her phone out and started recording as well.
The man, speaking Mandarin, addressed the woman, saying she had said he was sick. Strangely, he then went on to ask her if she thought Singaporeans are very big.
In reply, she told him that he had harassed her earlier.
The man denied doing anything to harass her but repeated that she had alleged he was sick.
At this point, a man who also worked at the stall came into the camera frame and told the man that, whether or not he was sick, he should not be creating a scene at their place of business.
The woman then said she would call the police.
It seemed that the man taking the video could not let go of his point and asked her again why she said he was sick.
After the woman called the police, he asked her what he had done to her.
She repeated that he had harassed her, to the point of raising his middle finger against her, which the CCTV would have caught.
The man said again that she had called him sick.
Many netizens commenting on the post on Singapore Incidents said that the man should have just let the matter go and that he did not need to film and upload the encounter online.
“Live and let live,” a Facebook user advised him.
“You’re not sick, but you keep taking videos of others. People are in business and have time to take care of you,” another added.
“Hawkers already juggle 101 tasks daily just to keep their business running. They don’t have time to entertain unnecessary disputes. The man created a disturbance and affected the flow of the hawker business. This is an act of harassment. Then he took the video and posted online to act like the victim,” a commenter pointed out. /TISG
Read also: Chinatown fruit vendor in viral video denies being rude to US tourists
