S'pore Student, 21, On Being Secretly Filmed After Friends Sing 'Happy Birthday' To Him On MRT: "No Way A Matter So Small' Would Go Viral"

Imagine landing in Hong Kong, switching on your phone and immediately getting hit with a barrage of messages telling you you're trending on social media.

That's how Ashton found out that a late-night MRT ride with his friends after celebrating his birthday had ended up on Instagram page Complaint Singapore.

"I literally just touched down in Hong Kong not long ago around 1.15pm and when I turned on my data after being on airplane mode, I had like a barrage of messages being sent to me," the ITE West student tells 8days.sg.

"I thought nothing of it until I saw the sentence, 'kena trend ah'. Then to my surprise, I saw my damn face on a page, which was not how I intended to start my day,” he added.

It all started the night before.

Ashton had turned 21 on Wednesday (Sep 23) and spent the evening celebrating with six friends.

The seven of them, aged between 18 and 21, met through volleyball competitions and had been celebrating at Teo Heng KTV at The Star Vista before taking the MRT home.

His friends, however, apparently weren't done embarrassing the birthday boy.

At around 11.40pm, while travelling from Buona Vista on the East-West Line, they started singing "Happy Birthday" to him again.

"They would sing finish the birthday song and then a few minutes later sing some parts of the song again. I would say it is a 'joking' way to embarrass the birthday recipient,” he Ashton said.

Another commuter subsequently filmed the group and submitted the clip to Complaint Singapore with the caption "Noisy group of youths on MRT".

The complainant claimed they had been "talking, shouting and making a lot of noise throughout the journey", describing it as "extremely disruptive and uncomfortable for other passengers, especially at such a late hour".

They also said they had submitted feedback to SMRT.

Now, you might expect Ashton to insist they weren't being noisy at all.

He doesn't.

"Honestly speaking, the person is not wrong. We were just trying to enjoy the day and we didn't mean to disrupt other people, but to be fair I would say we did talk softer at some point during our journey back as we clearly told some of them to lower their voices,” he said,.

One of Ashton's friends had also claimed in the comments that the video's audio appeared to have been edited or amplified.

Ashton is more cautious. He says the video sounds louder than he remembers, but acknowledges that doesn't necessarily mean the audio was altered, noting that different phones can capture sound differently.

Ashton says his friends had also been trying out a social media trend where someone announces their friend's birthday to strangers and encourages everyone to sing along.

And apparently, it worked.

Before they even got on the MRT, Ashton's friends tried it with a group of strangers near The Star Vista.

"When my friends started singing, those group of people actually sang along loudly as well," he recalls.

One of Ashton's friends also claimed in the comments that some MRT passengers joined in with their birthday song.

Ashton had no idea anyone had filmed the group. It was also his first time being recorded by a stranger and posted online.

"I was quite shocked because NO WAY a matter so small could end up becoming a viral sensation on the internet," he tells us.

Thankfully for Ashton, the response on the complaint page probably wasn't what he expected.

Many netizens actually defended the group.

"The person taking video didn't have friends as a teenager," read one comment.

Another commenter, who identified themselves as being in their 60s, said that while they dislike rowdy commuters too, they didn't see much wrong with what the youths were doing.

"Give the young ones some room for fun," they wrote.

Ashton says he was genuinely surprised by the support.

"I'm glad they defended us, because usually people getting videoed and posted on the internet usually isn't a good thing. It's always something bad," he says.

All that support doesn't mean Ashton thinks young people should have free rein to make as much noise as they want on public transport either.

When we asked whether youths should simply be given room to have fun, he saw both sides.

"To a certain extent I would agree, but at the same time we have to be mindful of how loud we are in public as it may be disruptive to others," he says.

Interestingly, the incident comes just as Singapore introduced new rules targeting nuisance behaviour on public transport.

From Sep 23, nuisance and disruptive behaviour on public buses and at bus interchanges and terminals, including playing audio loudly, can carry a maximum fine of S$500.

Similar rules already apply on trains. LTA previously said commuters displaying prohibited nuisance behaviour on trains may be issued a Notification of Offence, with a maximum penalty of S$500 for each prohibited act.

But no, that doesn't mean singing "Happy Birthday" on the MRT automatically gets you a S$500 fine.

LTA's examples of inconsiderate behaviour include keeping noise levels down and not using devices at high volume, and the authority has said it and public transport operators will exercise "discretion and fairness" when managing inconsiderate commuters.

Ashton, however, has one observation after finding himself on the wrong end of someone's smartphone camera.

"People in this generation, especially the older ones, would LOVE to take out that damn phone and start recording," he quipped.

At press time, Ashton says SMRT has not contacted him or his friends over the incident.

Photos: Complaint Singapore/IG