Netizens Come to the Rescue of Youtuber Veveonah After She Was Accused of Lying for Fame

By Ameera Rosli  •  in News
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source: Veveonah M. on Youtube

Malaysia as a whole was amazed when Sabahan teen, Veveonah Mosibin posted a video of herself living on a tree for 24 hours to get WiFi to sit for her exams.

Not only was this feat difficult enough, she also had to overcome several obstacles like heavy rain and hornets. As she persevered, Veveonah managed to prove that even in the forest, you can still get internet connection strong enough to sit through an online exam.

source: The Star

Her dedication and plethora of entertaining yet informative YouTube videos inspired many telecommunication companies to reflect on the lack of internet connectivity in these rural areas.

One such company was TM who decided to take action and upgrade Pitas, the village Veveonah is from, to 300Mbps fibre optic connectivity.

Netizens celebrated this achievement which proved the power of youths and the significance in speaking out. Veveonah, or Veve for short, was deemed an inspiration and a true pioneer towards progress in her village.

However, fast forward to September 3, notably a few months after her video first went viral, Veve and her videos were mentioned in parliament by a deputy minister.

Source: The Star

During a recent debate at Dewan Negara regarding internet connectivity and the numerous complaints towards it, Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister, Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin, was queried about the poor connectivity in rural areas.

After explaining that the inefficacies were due to blind spots, economic unfeasibility and vandalism and theft of cables and generators, he diverted the subject to Veve.

Take a look at the clip:

In the clip, he stated that Veve was just a mere YouTuber and that she didn’t even have online exams to begin with. He claimed that his team had checked the validity of this statement before he made it. He also accused Veve of uploading the video not for the betterment of her village, but simply to gain fame.

It only took a couple of hours for netizens, her schoolmates, and one of her teachers to come to Veve’s defence and provide evidence of her exam timetable that indeed proves that she did sit for an online exam. Understandably, many netizens were angered by the minister’s accusations.

Some believed that even if Veve were lying, her video was still evidence of neglected rural areas. Veve’s classmates and even her teacher came forward to defend the Sabahan YouTuber’s character.

Take a look:

In a matter of hours, the minister decided to post his apology on Facebook. He claimed that he received false information which he accepted as truth and used in parliament. He then apologised to Veve and wished her luck in her future endeavours.

Inevitably, before he realised his mistake, the minister’s unkind allegations reached Veve herself. She responded by posting on her Facebook page. She addressed the minister and said she never intended for the video to go viral and that the challenge was all in good fun.

“This time, I’m viral again, but with some bad effects. I don’t know how to deal with negative and bad comments on social media. It hurts,” she said regarding the adverse effects of the minister’s statement.

Later on, she even responded in a phone interview with Channel News Asia where she says she forgives the minister for his remarks.

The public opinion of Veve has only improved after the incident and many are showing their solidarity and support towards her. Through the power of the internet, Veve has managed to improve her village and expose the neglect that has been taking place for years.

This incident as well as the incident involving PAS lawmaker Nik Zawawi show that fact-checking must happen before leaders proceed to make claims.

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