Netflix Taiwan apologized on Monday for a controversial meme that it admitted was out of date after being criticized on social media for the meme’s play on difficulties people in Taiwan had buying COVID-19 rapid test kits earlier this month.
The meme, a photo with text meant to promote the South Korean drama “Tomorrow,” was part of a Facebook message posted by Netflix Taiwan on May 21.
The photo shows a man carrying a boy over his shoulder while walking away from a group of four other boys, with the text implying that rapid tests were being grabbed up by the man who lined up at 7 a.m. to get them, leaving none left for the others in line.
But the message at the top read “there is still tomorrow,” a reference to the drama’s title.
The experience of lining up for rapid tests and rapid test shortages was a reality for many Taiwanese as recently as two weeks ago, but the post was immediately criticized by some netizens.
Golden Bell Award-winning director Yang Ya-che (???) accused Netflix of making “up rumors about the shortage” and said he would unsubscribe from the service, while dismissing a comment suggesting it was a failed attempt at humor.
“That is not humor,” Yang wrote. “They did it on purpose. The post wasn’t released two weeks ago (when obtaining rapid tests was still difficult),” Yang said on his Facebook page.
The controversial meme has since been removed.
In a statement on Facebook on Monday, Netflix said it overlooked the seriousness of prevention COVID-19, which has surged across Taiwan, and apologized for a lack of thoughtfulness in posting the image on social media.
Pledging a more careful screening of future images to avoid a recurrence of the situation, Netflix Taiwan said it would reflect on its social responsibility.
Taiwan has reported more than 60,000 new COVID-19 cases a day since May 12, reflecting a surge in the disease that began in early April.
As case numbers grew, and Taiwan’s capacity to provide the more reliable but slower polymerase chain reaction tests was challenged, people tried to resort to rapid antigen tests to see if they had the disease.
The tests were hard to get, however, leading the government to start a rationing program on April 28 that enabled people to buy a kit of five rapid tests for NT$500.
In the following days, people waited in lines outside of pharmacies to get their kits.
In recent days, however, the rapid tests have been widely available and people no longer have to line up, according to Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (???).
Only 14.3 percent of the 2,941 pharmacies contracted under the plan had sold out of their daily allocation of rapid tests as of May 21, Chen said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel