A social media blog set up by a Chinese police officer to tackle rumours about the force has attracted thousands of new followers.
At the time of writing, about 700,000 people had started to follow the account created by Wang Haiding.
Wang uses the blog to quash rumours, which can be rife in the Asian country. In one posting, the police officer said:
“A kidney dies only hours after removal. You can do nothing with one stolen from a stranger, except stir fry it.”
He also has been offering alternative security advice to the account’s followers, the state-owned news agency Xinhua is reporting.
However, although humour is abundant, Wang stated that it is a serious account.
While personal in its postings, it is actually part of a wide-ranging campaign by the district police of Jiangning in Nanjing province. Owned by the police force, it is an attempt to make the authorities more approachable and ‘human’.
Wang explained to Xinhua:
“The essence of my work is to build trust. You can’t just declare something as false, people may not believe it. So instead of making statements, I explain to them using previous cases and rational analysis.”
The essence of the account is to create a two-way exchange, something that the Chinese government has been criticised for not doing in the past.
However, there has been an unforeseen problem thanks to the success of the account. It has become so popular, that people are now reporting crimes to the newsfeed. As a result, Wang is advising them to instead call the Chinese emergency number, 110.
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