The working group of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) in Hubei province will be stationed at Douyu for a month to supervise the platform, as it was found to have a serious issue with pornography and vulgarity.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) instructed its local arm in central Hubei province to send a working group to Douyu, based in the provincial capital of Wuhan, to supervise the platform’s “rectification” process, the CAC said on Monday, May 8. As a result of this news, Douyu‘s US stocks plummeted before trading hours, down nearly 14%.
“Douyu is being punished for failing to manage posts from its users, resulting in the spread online of harmful content, including pornography, as well as posts deemed superstitious, or about prostitution, gambling and high-interest lending,”
China Daily reported.
On April 30, the administration also announced that cyberspace regulators have shut down 4,200 websites and banned nearly 70 apps suspected of involvement in criminal activities, such as providing illegal news and pornography, between January and March.
Tencent, majority owner of China’s two largest video game live streaming sites Douyu and Huya, previously wanted to merge the two platforms in 2020, but the move was later blocked by China’s antitrust regulator.
Douyu was founded in 2015 by its founder Shaojie Chen. According to the 20-F document submitted by the firm on April 25 to the US SEC, as of March 31, 2022, Tencent holds a stake of 37.7%, while Shaojie Chen holds a stake of 17%.
Sources: SCMP, China Daily
