“It’s disappointing to see that Netflix gave more screen time to the conspiracy theorists than the actual experts or family members of the victims,” said Twitter user @eulyxx.
Others critical of the three-part miniseries on the streaming channel accused the interviewees of peddling conspiracy theories linking the Russians, the US army, and flight captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah to the tragedy.
Maha Jeffery said labelling the show a documentary “would be a stretch” as 80% of it featured wild conspiracy theories. “Don’t get me started on Jeff Wise. Insulting,” he said, referring to a US-based author and television journalist who featured prominently in the series.
Another slammed the documentary’s producers for not appearing to care about the adverse effects of platforming conspiracy theorists in the documentary.
Joanne Lim said: “It was so unfortunate that the captain could not even defend himself (against) all the allegations and conspiracies against him. A 2nd injury towards the family of all on board. They need closure and it was nothing close.”
Shafira said the theories featured in the show were ridiculous, and “the defamation towards the pilot is unfair”.
Uzaya Shio, who said an aunt and cousin were on the fateful flight, wrote: “To see the entire incident become just a conspiracy theory is just disgusting.”
Dinesh Nair described the “documentary” as “a steaming mound of horse manure peddling conspiracy theories, including the aircraft being hijacked by either Russian intelligence, or shot down by the USAF”.
Jason Ng said the “documentary” provided an avenue for two conspiracy theorists to sell their fiction on #MH370. “Part 1 was about a guy blaming the pilot. Part 2 was about the same guy now blaming Russians. Part 3 was about a woman who blames the Americans. All without evidence.”
He said the series did try to debunk them, but poorly. “Wouldn’t it be better to interview serious journalists who covered #MH370 with facts?”
Non-Malaysian Twitter users also joined the chorus in condemning the series.
Among them was user @TheBrianMcManus who said: “Netflix has really embraced the ‘let’s just make s*** up’ documentary model. (I) think the MH370 doc is the last straw for me” while @Imranyhy_ posted a link to a YouTube video and said “this YouTube analysis (is) quite logical compared to this conspiracy nonsense”.
The MAS Boeing 777 vanished some 40 minutes after leaving Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing on March 8, 2014. Its disappearance remains one of aviation’s greatest mysteries as the aircraft has not been found despite the longest and most expensive search mission in history.