Screenshot of Douyu's apology post on Sina Weibo

Chinese live streaming platform Douyu apologized on Sunday for advertising H&M, which has been the subject of a boycott by Chinese consumers due to the brand's ban on cotton produced in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, after the move sparked widespread criticism on social media.

In a post on its official account on Chinese Twitter-liked social media platform Sina Weibo, Douyu said that it has removed the advertisement immediately after discovering the issue and that the incident was caused by a system error relating to the supervision of commercial advertisements. Douyu vowed to rectify its internal process and avoid similar incidents in future.

Some social media users said earlier that they received advertisements from H&M when launching the mobile app of Douyu from October 2 and criticized the platform for abandoning principles in pursuit of profits, according to media reports. 

"Douyu's apology was a matter of course, but the incident made me speechless and I hope Douyu can take the issue seriously," said one social media user.

According to H&M's financial report for the third quarter of 2021, revenue for the brand had dropped by 40 percent in the Chinese mainland. During the same period of 2020, the Chinese mainland was H&M'S fourth largest market, generating around 2.55 billion Swedish kronor ($291.25 million) in revenue, said media's reports. 

Global Times