Wuhan students tried to boot remote learning app from the App Store by leaving bad reviews
8Reported today on The Verge
For the full article visit: https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/9/21171495/wuhan-students-dingtalk-hooky-nyc-columbia-princeton-app-store-reviews
Reported today in The Verge.
Wuhan students tried to boot remote learning app from the App Store by leaving bad reviews
In Wuhan, China, where the novel coronavirus outbreak began, schools are closed, so kids have had to use an Alibaba-owned corporate app called DingTalk to attend classes remotely. (In January, DingTalk got a slew of new education features.) The only problem: a rumor had been circulating that apps with one-star ratings would be booted from the App Store. And according to a dispatch from the London Review of Books, a bunch of Chinese kids did exactly what you'd expect kids to do: they review-bombed DingTalk.
good morning to all the kids under quarantine in wuhan who defeated the app assigning them homework by spamming it with 1-star reviews until it got removed from the app store https://t.co/gDxjivabte
According to TechNode, it's meant that DingTalk has been fighting for its life:
Dingtalk uploaded an apology video on Chinese streaming site Bilibili. The video featured memes and cartoons singing a catchy tune with lyrics begging for better reviews like "I know guys, you were not expecting such a productive holiday" and "Please don't give me any more one-star ratings. I was chosen for this job and there is not much I can do about it." The video has been viewed nearly 17 million times.
In response to DingTalk's pleas, a widely circulated joke, students wrote in the review section they were willing to give DingTalk five stars, but in five "installments."
DingTalk also started receiving a lot of five-star reviews around the same time as the Chinese students' review-bombing campaign began in earnest, TechNode wrote. They appear to be from older users who aren't stoked about kids skipping out on school. Even so, the company's CEO seems to be in on the joke.