Followed widespread criticism over inappropriate alcohol video content on social media, Chinese short video platforms have introduced measurements curbing some drinking live streams.
The platforms include giants including Douyin and Kuaishou.
Douyin has announced that, by the first week of April, it had delisted 16,427 video items and 996 live streaming studios plus 900 live streamers had been fined for violating alcohol content regulations.
The platform simultaneously plugged tags like “binge drinking leads to damaged health; drink moderately, live healthily” on keywords searches like “drink live stream”, “booze-up”.
Douyin has also said it will carry out routine inspections and cut live streams and videos immediately if they feature scenes of “excessive drinking”.
Elsewhere, Kuaishou released an announcement saying that it will likewise monitor the presence of such content, remove any offending videos, and block culprit accounts. At the start of April Kuaishou had removed 1,826 items.
A lucrative business
Driven by the huge market interest, food and drink have become leading categories across various live stream platforms. It’s a lucrative business: one streamer revealed that in his live event, one alcohol advertisement made him RMB 3,000 and a dedicated video earned RMB 5,000. A live streamer with over ten thousand followers can receive a 3,000 RMB “bonus” from followers during a live drinking stream. This can be increased with sales commission generated from live events.
Since 2020, regulatory authorities have tried to clamp down on unethical live stream and video content on social platforms.
However, according to insiders at live stream platforms, inspection faces multiple challenges. Firstly, platforms are not always motivated to curtail such streams because they generate huge volumes of traffic. Secondly, technically speaking, it’s difficult to identify unsuitable content.
Zang Lei, a Senior Researcher from Beijing Normal University International Center for Internet Rule of Law, said that although the alliance between platforms and live streamers does not constitute an employment relationship, liabilities exist. If the live streamer is physically injured or even killed due to a “drinking broadcast”, where there is a health agreement between the producer and the platform, the latter is liable for breach of contract.
