MRT Corp Lodges Police Report Over Slanderous Social Media Posts

MRT Corp, or Mass Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd recently lodged a police report pertaining to the flood of social media posts and shares that sprouted from the alleged crack on the MRT guideway in Bandar Utama, near the Damansara-Puchong Highway (LDP).

The viral post took on a life of its own, pushing baseless allegations to the integrity and safety policies of MRT Corp, and its something their Director of Strategic Communication and Public Relations Mahmood Abdul Razak takes very seriously.

According to The Sun Daily, he said the crack was a simple illusion created by the camera, while it was actually just a seam line of the netting which was covering the guideway. We even took a picture of our own to confirm the situation during our initial report. 

"It all started when there were posts on social media from people claiming to be experienced engineers creating the impression that they were part of this project. The thing that made it even worse was that these people (experienced engineers) who said the guideway was going to collapse at any time created such great concern among the public,"

Mahmood assured reporters that the guideway structure itself had no damage or problems to report of, claiming there was absolutely no risk of it collapsing. Furthermore, he denies that the company has been shying away from media attention on the issue.

"A media release was issued on the evening of 23 July 2015 after the picture of the supposed crack became viral."

In the ensuing police report, Mahmood had specified nine individuals who are believed to be responsible for causing the stir, as well as users who made comments on social media that could be viewed as blatantly slanderous.

Our own take on this is that social media is indeed a great way to spread information and exposes us to a wider community within a large and dense population such as that in the Klang Valley. But as it has been proven time and time again, it is far too easy for people with less-than-virtuous intentions to spread misinformation and feed a detrimental narrative. Don’t believe everything you hear or read or watch. All you need is a little grain of salt to remain skeptical.