‘Using good as bait’: blind China girl detained after fake hit-by-bike clip gets 100 million views

A viral video of a blind woman on a tactile pavement being hit by an electric bike, which turned out to be staged, has sparked a wave of public anger in China.The video has been viewed more than 100 million times online.It has also raised questions about similar scams involving the visually impaired and fears that it could diminish public’s trust in the blind community, Shangyou News reported.In the video, which was released on May 9 by the blogger @baobaomangtu, after the rider of the e-bike knocked down the blind woman in Beijing. The rider did not apologise. Instead, he blamed her by asking “why did you not watch out for yourself?”The blind woman involved in the staged accident, above, has been detained by the police. Photo: ifeng.comThen he rode away leaving the squatting woman to search for her tactile stick.The video even attracted the attention of Beijing-traffic-police-authority" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="133495" data-entity-type="organization">Beijing traffic police authority, which left a comment asking the blogger to send them the original video of the accident so that they could find the offender.However, the blogger deleted the video the next day. She told the Beijing police that it happened a long time before and she had received an apology from the rider.But some internet users noticed that both the video track on her mobile phone and an poster on the street indicated the date of the incident should be May 1.The above image shows the hand of the blind woman, her stick on the pavement and the electric bicycle with it’s brake light on. Photo: ifeng.comThe Beijing police said in a statement on May 16 that the two people involved in the video, a 26-year-old man surnamed Liu and a 24-year-old woman surnamed Jiang, had been detained for staging the video in a bid to attract online traffic and make profits.This ignited public anger, with many people questioning the identity of the blogger.A photographer told the media that the woman is genuinely blind. She lost her eyesight in 2023 as a result of complications resulting from a problem with her immune system.Influencer Wang Taifan, who ignored an eye disease when he was young, said he was shocked and worried about the effect the incident might have on public perceptions of the visually impaired.Further Reading“This issue will not end when the blogger @baobaomagntu is punished. It will possibly erode the public’s kindness for our group,” Wang was quoted as saying.Zhang Shuxun, a blind teacher at a special education school, said: “We have been trying for years to let society know about the visually impaired community. But our efforts have been hit because of this news.”A worker, right, helps a blind man to walk in Yinchuan City, northwestern China. Photo: XinhuaAnother blind teacher Zheng Jianwei said when blind people are out and about they often face problems with bikes on the blind-friendly pavements.said that because many people think blind people cannot use mobile phones, there is a belief that any videos they make must be fake.The incident sparked a widespread discussion online.“Using kindness as bait is worse than evil,” said one person.Another said: “Now I really cannot tell what is true on the internet. I sympathise with myself for sympathising with her in the first instance.”