Official social media accounts should not express personal views

[Photo/IC]

The fast development of information technology has made the internet-based channels and platforms, such as micro blogs, an indispensable means for governments to exchange information with the public. If operated well, these new channels can improve the transparency of governance, and help to refute rumors by keeping people informed about government affairs in a timely manner.

However, the official micro blog of Gucheng district in Lijiang responded to people's anger over a recent violent incident in the popular tourist spot in Southwest China's Yunnan province, in which a female tourist was disfigured by locals in a street attack by saying: "You'd better never come! Nobody cares whether you come or not!"

And Jinan public security bureau in East China's Shandong province said through its official micro blog: "Freaks are everywhere in the world. They are like an over-confident donkey knocking into a bus." These sarcastic remarks were seemingly addressed to the people pathetic with a young man, who was sentenced lifelong imprisonment for wounding a person with a fruit knife that later died in hospital, as the person and some others were physically and verbally abusing his mother who failed to pay back the money she had borrowed from a loan shark.

Such personal and emotional rhetoric is improper for the official information disclosure channels. The operators of these government social media accounts must be cautious and prudent in their wording to avoid any possible misunderstanding.

Also, governments at various levels should establish a more rigorous proofreading mechanism before releasing any information through these official accounts, so that rather being the platforms for quarrels with the public, they are reliable information sources that care about people's concerns and dispel their doubts.