Xinba, a popular livestreamer with more than 100 million followers on various social platforms, was banned by Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, on Thursday for violating the self-discipline agreement of the platform. Xinba has 4.15 million followers and received 16.191 million likes on Douyin. At present, it is no longer possible to search the relevant information on his account on Douyin. Photo: Sina Weibo

Xinba, a popular livestreamer with more than 100 million followers on various social platforms, was banned by Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, on Thursday for violating the self-discipline agreement of the platform. Xinba has 4.15 million followers and received 16.191 million likes on Douyin. At present, it is no longer possible to search the relevant information on his account on Douyin.

Xinba has repeatedly posted insults, abuse and false information on Douyin. On November 1, Xinba scolded Douyin in a live broadcast as a double standard platform. "I don't care about this platform, nor do I care about Douyin's traffic, you can erase everything about me, I don't care," he said.

In addition, Xinba was involved in a controversy over a business deal he had with a company that sells mattress. He was later forced to terminate the cooperation.

According to Xinba, the distributor of the mattress expressed dissatisfaction with his livestreaming, believing that it is too cheap to buy the same mattress from him and affects their interests. According to media reports, in the Kuaishou livestreaming of Xinba, mattresses priced at 20,000 yuan ($2,728) in physical stores can be bought for less than 5,000 yuan ($682).

Prior to that, Xinba was caught selling sugar water through livestreaming on Kuaishou, pretending it was edible bird's nest - a type of food boasting for high nutritional value.

Xinba, who has been considered the "sales king" on Kuaishou, has also been banned from it many times before.

China's Double 11 sales festival, the world's largest shopping carnival,arrived in a low-profile way late on Tuesday. Many livestreamers have spared no effort to introduce various preferential mechanisms to attract consumers on the first Double 11 sales festival in four years without pandemic-related restrictions.

However, the merchandise value of 155 brands on e-commerce giant Tmall surpassed 100 million yuan ($13.7 million) within minutes after the festival started at 8 pm Tuesday. Within one hour, more than 70,000 brands had achieved the sales value they scored last year.

Livestreaming e-commerce has blossomed in the country, bringing benefits to both merchants and consumers. But at the same time, the behavior of some livestreamers has aroused widespread public discussion.

Li Jiaqi, a Chinese makeup and beauty influence who was previously known as the "King of Lipstick", openly made "inappropriate remarks" to a netizen during the live broadcast earlier in September. The netizen had complained that a eyebrow pencil cost 79 yuan was "too expensive."

In response, regulators across the country have also stepped up efforts to rectify wrongdoing through livestreaming.

Market supervision bureaus in many places, including Southwest China's Yunnan Province and East China's Zhejiang Province, stated before Double 11 event this year that they will regulate online transaction operations, including that live broadcast e-commerce practitioners shall not require merchants to sign "minimum price agreements" to effectively protect legitimate rights and interests of consumers and other operators.

Since 2016, when the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television formulated the first online livestream regulatory policy, relevant departments have issued more than a dozen management documents in the field to rectify violations.

The Internet Advertising Management Measures implemented since May 1 pointed out that live marketers who recommend goods and services in their own name or image to constitute advertising endorsements should bear the corresponding responsibilities and obligations according to law, so as to limit the efficacy of anchors fictional products to the greatest extent to mislead consumers.

In addition to guiding merchants and platform to strengthen their awareness of integrity and rules, regulatory and law enforcement departments will also increase supervision and punishment of livestreamers and merchants who clearly violate laws and regulations or harm rights and interests of consumers, Gan Lin, deputy director of the State Administration for Market Regulation, previously said.

Global Times