April 1st is a folk festival in Western society - April Fool's Day. Under the cover of the covid-19 pandemic, this year's April Fool's Day seems to be deserted, and people have less "spoof" mood. Many countries have warned their citizens not to make jokes about coronavirus on April Fool's Day, because it may form rumors, and such rumors will endanger life.
Pandemic jokes provoke public outrage
Kim Jae-jung, who was born in 1986, is a well-known artist in South Korea. He debuted as a member of TVXQ in his early years. On April 1, Kim Jae-jung first announced through his personal online social platform that he was infected with new coronary pneumonia and was hospitalized. As soon as the news came out, the media followed suit. If true, Kim Jae-jung will be the first well-known artist in South Korea to be diagnosed with the infection. However, just over 30 minutes later, Jin Zaizhong updated his social platform, calling it an "April Fool's Day joke", whose original intention was to raise everyone's vigilance against the virus. Most of the Korean media and netizens could not accept this explanation. South Korean media angrily criticized, "This is the worst joke on April Fool's Day": Now is the time when everyone is struggling with the epidemic, and the daily life of ordinary people is almost paralyzed. Making such jokes on social media not only causes great harm to the people who are suffering from the epidemic, but also disappoints the people and fans. Although Kim Jae-joong later apologized and said that he was "willing to accept all the punishments that will be given because of this text", many people still went to the Blue House website of the Presidential Palace to petition for severe punishment.
Many countries ban April Fool's jokes about coronavirus
Thai Epidemic Control Center spokesman Tavisin said that the country has entered a state of emergency, so while people are self-isolating at home, don't share low-quality new crown pneumonia jokes online because of temporary boredom: "It's not funny, it's not at all. funny!" Thailand's government announced on March 31 that if it "pretends to be infected with coronavirus" on April Fool's Day this year, it will be punished according to the country's law, with a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
The cybersecurity department in the western Indian state of Maharashtra said it would take legal action against anyone spreading fake news on April Fools' Day. "The state government will not allow anyone to spread rumours or panic over Covid-19," Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmuk said. He also said he had instructed the authorities to "quickly and forcefully (deal with) these bastards."
The German Ministry of Health also said it should not make up stories about coronavirus on April 1 this year, because "too much false information about the epidemic will make the fight against the epidemic more difficult." The German Ministry of Health also stated on its official social networking page on April 1: "In the current situation, we hope that everyone will exercise restraint and not make up stories about the new coronavirus on April 1 this year." The German Ministry of Health added , which is important because “too much disinformation about the outbreak makes the fight against it more difficult.”
As the "originator of April Fool's Day jokes" among Internet companies, Google's April Fools' Day planning has also been quite creative over the years. But this year Google said that out of respect for everyone, the company would suspend its long-standing April Fools' Day tradition, especially not to make inappropriate jokes about the recent outbreak. The US technology giant Google also announced that it will suspend the company's April Fool's Day tradition this year and will not set April Fool's Day eggs in any products. Google said in an internal email: "This is to show respect for everyone on the front line of the fight against the epidemic. Our highest goal right now is to help everyone, so let's save these jokes until next April. It will definitely be much better in April next year than it is now."
