On 11 April a construction worker posted a video showing a striking difference in quality between regular builders’ protection helmets and those worn by site supervisors. Holding a regular standard yellow worker helmet in one hand and a red supervisor's helmet in the other, the worker repeatedly smashed one helmet against the other. The yellow helmet easily broke whilst the red helmet resisted the impact. The video clip went viral with more than 100 million views before being taken down from the Chinese Kuaishou platform. As of 29 April 2019, the hashtag, “The Contrast between the Safety Helmets of Workers and Supervisors” (#工人和领导安全帽对比#) had been viewed more than 250 million times on the Chinese Weibo blog platform.
Netizens have been especially supportive of this whistleblower’s alert over safety standards. As a result of the worker’s actions however, he could no longer find employment until with help from a friend he did manage to secure a job on a construction site.
With the video’s extraordinary social media success the event has made it to the forefront of China’s mainstream media, even to the point of necessitating a statement by the Minister of Emergency Management on the social media platform Weibo,
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