Singapore — Gov.sg, the official website of the Government, has raised eyebrows for asking its followers in a poll whether they enjoy seeing memes online.
The poll, which was put up on the official Gov.sg telegram channel, was presumably published to gauge what kind of content its followers want to see.
Subscribers could choose between six options in the poll. The six options are: 1. Explainer and how-to videos; 2. Infographics; 3. Long-form articles; 4. Memes; 5. Plain text messages; or 6. Quizzes and polls.
More than 151,100 subscribers saw the poll that was put up at around 5.15 pm on Wednesday (Jan 20) and 24,885 individuals cast their votes.
Most respondents said they enjoyed infographics, while memes were the second most popular type of content.
Next were the explainer and how-to videos, the quizzes and polls and the plain text messages. Long-form articles were the least popular option.
While the poll provided unique insight to some observers, others were bemused and asked whether the Government platform will be publishing more memes since it is the second most popular type of content.
The Reddit user, u/FarTear8, was one of those who were surprised to see the option for memes in the poll. Sharing a screenshot of the poll on the Singapore subreddit, the question asked was: “Imagine what type of memes would an official Gov sg tele channel be posting everyday 😅 political memes?”
While some netizens were also surprised that the Government website might be interested in posting memes, others linked to memes Government agencies have made that received a positive response.
This meme published by the Housing and Development Board drew praise for capitalising on the hype over mobile game “Among Us” to promote its services:
Still others made tongue-in-cheek comments about how Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s wife, Ms Ho Ching, already posts a plethora of memes on her Facebook page and how the chief of the meme operation could be social media-savvy MP Baey Yam Keng.
The poll remains open on the Gov.sg Telegram channel and those who subscribe to the channel can still cast their votes as the polls on the messaging platform generally do not have a closing date. /TISG