Illustration: Liu Xiangya/GT

Several online Chinese platforms including Weibo, Douyin and Xiaohongshu have announced their actions about some users’ accounts with posts that violate the rules.

In a number of recent online discussions about the Chinese national table tennis team, some netizens posted false information, some insulted and slandered athletes and others participated in disputes among fan groups. 

As of Tuesday, Douyin had removed 3,982 pieces of information with harmful content related to fan culture within two weeks and banned 297 accounts. Among the banned users, some had spread false information about national table tennis team members. As a consequence, 112 rumors were cleared and any related accounts banned. 

On social media platform Weibo, it was announced that over 7,600 pieces of violating content were cleared and more than 700 accounts were dealt with in response to behaviors such as “fan wars,” insults, and malicious hyping in discussions about related events and athletes.

According to Weibo, some accounts had been gossiping about the athletes’ partners, while others had been posting offensive and accusatory content about the athletes themselves.

On Sunday, Fan Zhendong, a Grand Slam champion of Chinese national table tennis team, posted a message asking fans to support athletes in a “better way.”

Some of the high-profile accounts involved in these violations issued public apologies.

During the Paris Olympic Games, relevant legal departments in China began addressing the issue of inappropriate fan behavior online, and both the platforms and the government agencies have paid close attention to this phenomenon. 

On August 15, the cybersecurity department of the public security authorities announced four typical cases of law enforcement actions against illegal activities related to inappropriate fan behavior in the sports sector, three of which were related to table tennis, CCTV reported.