PETALING JAYA, March 9 — Thousands of young students from Wuhan bombarded a study app with one-star ratings recently in a cheeky attempt to escape homework duties.

The incident was highlighted in a report published in the London Review of Books (LRB) which described the current situation in Wuhan, which closed its schools and went into lockdown shortly after the Covid-19 virus emerged.

Children were initially elated to be given an extended holiday but their glee was quickly dampened when teachers started using the DingTalk app to conduct online lessons and assign homework.

It wasn’t long before the kids decided to rebel by gaming the system.

“Somehow the little brats worked out that if enough users gave the app a one-star review, it would get booted off the App Store.

“Tens of thousands of reviews flooded in, and DingTalk’s rating plummeted overnight from 4.9 to 1.4.

Their rating is currently 2.6.

“The app has had to beg for mercy on social media: ‘I’m only five years old myself, please don’t kill me,’” read the LRB report.

Amused reactions on social media began circulating online, with many pointing out the shared humanity of kids seeking out crafty methods to weasel their way out of doing homework.

 

 

 

 

 

DingTalk has responded to the wave of negative reviews with a comical music video posted on Chinese streaming site Bilibili.

According to translations from TechNode, the clip shows several cartoons singing woeful lyrics, such as “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.”