A doctored news story circulated on Indonesian social media posts that falsely claimed that the Chinese President Xi Jinping declared April 11 “World Loyal Men’s Day” to honor a popular player who took his own life over an alleged failed relationship. A representative for CNBC Indonesia told AFP that it had not published such a report. There have been no official announcements from the Chinese government about any “World Loyal Men’s Day” on May 21, 2024.
“Chinese President Xi Jinping designated the day Fat Cat died as World Loyal Men’s Day,” read the Indonesian-language headline of the doctored report shared on Facebook. TikTok on May 8, 2024.
The image, shared more than 1,000 times, appears to show a screenshot of a CNBC Indonesia article published on May 7, 2024.
It featured the signature “Tommy Patrio Sorongan”.
“Fat Cat” was the online nickname of Liu Jie, a 21-year-old Chinese gamer living in the southwestern city of Chongqing, who took his own life on April 11, 2024 (archived link).
Soon after, social media posts from a woman claiming to be the player’s sister claimed he died of a broken heart and accused his girlfriend of cheating on him.
The posts generated widespread pity online, with related hashtags on Weibo racking up billions of views.
However, Chongqing police he said on May 20, the investigation found no evidence that Liu’s girlfriend had deceived him (archived link).
Police added that Liu’s sisters paid to promote her posts about her partner, which triggered online bullying against her.
The screenshot was also shared alongside similar false claims in Indonesian-language social media posts, including on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and short video platform SnackVideoracking up over 470,000 views.
But keyword searches for official announcements of the Chinese government found no mention of the player (archived link).
The screenshot actually shows a manipulated report from CNBC Indonesia.
Tampered report
A keyword search on the CNBC Indonesia website using the date, time and signature shown in the screenshot did not find any articles about Xi Jinping declaring “World Loyal Men’s Day.”
The details, however, correspond to a report about a meeting between the Chinese leader and French President Emmanuel Macron (archived link).
The headline read: “The meeting between Xi Jinping and Macron took place, what is happening between China and France?”
Below is a comparison of screenshots of the amended article (left) and the original CNBC Indonesia report (right), with corresponding details marked by AFP:
Xi’s photo in the circulating screenshot was taken by Reuters news agency in 2016 (archived link).
CNBC Indonesia editorial secretary Dara Ayu Lestari separately told AFP on May 16 the circulating screenshot was “changed” from CNBC Indonesia’s report on Xi and Macron’s meeting.
