Video-sharing app Douyin fined over vulgar content

Popular short-video platform Douyin has been fined for spreading vulgar and pornographic content, a central government watchdog announced on Friday.

The move could be considered a sign that platforms are being urged to shoulder more responsibility to manage content, an expert said.

Douyin's punishment was made public by the National Office for the Fight Against Pornography and Illegal Publications after investigations showed that some anchors on Douyin displayed behaviors like flirting, sexual suggestiveness, smoking and using obscenities during webcasts, the office said in a release on its Weibo account.

The probe also showed that the real-time comments, known as "bullet chat", in some livestreaming rooms of Douyin contained vulgar content. In addition, some individual anchors played or recommended unapproved games that include violence and terror content, it said.

Douyin was fined and ordered to correct its illegal behaviors, strengthen content management and block pornographic content. But the office did not disclose the exact amount of the fine.

The office said that in 2020 it received more than 900 tips about pornographic and vulgar information on Douyin's platform.

"Big internet platforms have hundreds of millions of users. The spread of such harmful information will exert a very bad influence," the office said in the release. By August of 2020, Douyin had about 600 million active daily users, according to the company.

Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center at China University of Political Science and Law, said the Douyin's punishment was made in accordance with a series of regulations on the governance of online information and content, which came into effect in March. The move reflected that greater importance has been attached to platforms' responsibility of harnessing users, he added.

The punishment is a warning to all online platforms like Douyin that although they are not direct content producers, they shoulder the responsibility of examining content produced by users and curbing improper information from spreading, Zhu said.