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Amid Social Media Outrage By Angry Chinese Netizens, Mercedes Apologises For Quoting Dalai Lama
China has more than 700 million active internet users. (China Photos via Getty Images)
German car maker Mercedes-Benz found itself facing a deluge of angry Chinese netizens after it quoted Dalai Lama in one of its Instagram posts on Monday (5 February), New York Times has reported.
In this latest instance of a corporation being cowed down by social media reactions, Mercedes issued an apology on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter.
“This morning, we noticed that our company’s international social media had posted an extremely erroneous message. For this, we sincerely apologise.”
“Taking this incident as a guide, we will immediately take practical actions to deepen our understanding of Chinese culture and values ,” the apology read.
A month back, the American hotel chain Marriott International had to publicly pledge that it did not support separatist elements in China after it listed Tibet and Taiwan as separate countries. Its Chinese website and application faced closure for a week by Chinese authorities following the incident.
Posts that contain any references to Dalai Lama or criticising China are routinely met with outrage by Chinese web users, even on platforms like Instagram, which is banned in China.
Chinese users use VPNs and proxies to go around the state-imposed censorship and vent on topics supposedly targeting China.
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