Wherever there is trouble afoot, people tend to play the blame game. It’s either you blame others or you find an excuse. It takes a lot of courage and self-introspection to admit your own faults.
On 30th April, Malaysian influencer and YouTuber Yang Bao Bei (杨宝贝) apologised for scamming people. However, recently, she seems to have tried to explain her actions away. She isn’t the only one trying to shift the blame. Her fans have been going after her victims while netizens took their anger out on an internet celebrity who had nothing to do with YBB.
Yang Bao Bei made a post on her Facebook claiming she may be suffering from depression and antisocial personality disorder otherwise known as sociopathy. According to China Press, the post was made early morning yesterday (4th May). YBB posted a screenshot which explained the disorder and stated it causes people to be unable to care for others. “No matter what trauma I experience, I will rationalise my sadness,” the YouTuber wrote. “At the same time, it is difficult to realise that I hurt others, and it is difficult to understand why others feel sad.” She mentioned she would bring it up to her doctor on her next visit.
YBB explained her mental condition hasn’t been improving. Although she was taking antidepressants, it hasn’t made any difference. The YouTuber added that her previous psychologists and those at the mental hospital are still monitoring her. Aside from her post, YBB also shared a video titled “Caused by depression!? Analyse the truth about YBB’s incident from the perspective of psychological counselling (忧郁症所致！？从心理谘商角度分析 YBB事件真相)”. YBB mentioned she cried while watching it.
Her posts sparked discussions among netizens. Some were of the opinion she was trying to rationalise what she had done. YBB later removed her post. It is believed that this was due to the majority of netizens disbelieving her claims.
For the past few weeks, YBB’s fans have been staunchly supporting her. Even before they knew the whole story, they have been lashing out at everyone who is not on their side. Fed up with the blind support, YBB’s business partner Chord Tan made a post on Facebook to address the matter. Chord stated that YBB’s victims so far have evidence to prove her wrongdoings, yet fans chose to disbelieve them to support their influencer. “Please stop giving confidence and strength to the wrong person,” he wrote. “A person who does something wrong is wrong.”
Chord made it clear that there is no law protecting internet celebrities from wrongdoings. “All are equal before justice,” he said. YBB’s business partner believes truth is exposed to avoid others from being deceived as well. But those who are blindly supporting YBB are going as far as to attack her victims. “What is the truth of this behaviour?” he asked.
He asked netizens to stop attacking victims and guessing blindly. He urged them to look beyond their viewpoint and find the truth. Chord has not given up on YBB however. He hopes she will turn over a new leaf and assume legal responsibility.
YBB’s fans aren’t the only ones guilty of lashing out. Netizens have apparently been blaming another internet celebrity. It was discovered that YBB was working with two others, YouTubers Agnes Ma and Chris Hoo. In a fit of righteous anger, netizens have been going after Agnes. However, it was discovered they have mixed up Agnes Ma with local celeb Agnes Lim (林莉幃). The harassment was so great that Lim made an Instagram story to clarify the matter.
Lim made it clear that although they share the same name, they are not the same person, as evidenced by their surname. She announced that her last name was Lim, and that she was not involved in the matter at all. She also tagged herself as #agneslim. Netizens soon realised they had the wrong person.
Police have announced they will not be charging YBB for her attempted suicide. However, they are looking into her fraud case. They reassured that they have received reports about her scams and will be invoking Section 420 (deception) of the Criminal Code to investigate the case.
