BEIJING — Chen Shaojie, founder and CEO of DouYu — China’s leading video streaming platform — is being held by Chinese authorities over supposed “pornographic content” on the site.
Chen’s whereabouts had been a mystery for weeks until Monday, when anonymous sources unofficially told the Chinese press that he was being held somewhere in the country’s labyrinthine prison system.
A few months ago, China’s internet watchdog, the all-powerful Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), launched an on-site inspection of DouYu’s local subsidiary in the Hubei province “to address ‘serious’ problems, including pornography,” the English-language South China Morning Post reported.
DouYu — a massive, China-based analog to YouTube — is the largest platform of its kind in the country, boasting 163.6 million monthly active users before the pandemic and outranking competing platforms such as DouYin, the flagship product by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.
Several weeks ago, following the Hubei branch inspection, Chen “vanished from sight and could neither be contacted nor located by his colleagues,” local news reported.
Reports about Chen, the tech mogul behind the Tencent Holdings-backed DouYu International Holdings, confirm he is being held “incommunicado” by Chinese authorities.
“When someone becomes incommunicado in mainland China, it typically means that the person has either been taken away by authorities for an inquiry or ‘to assist in an investigation,’” the South China Morning Post explained. “In Chen’s case, no Chinese authority has provided any information about his disappearance.”
Chen’s last public appearance was in August, during DouYu’s second-quarter results conference call.
'Providing Easy Access to Pornography'
Another tech mogul, China Renaissance Holdings chairman Bao Fan, was seized by authorities earlier this year in an unspecified investigation. “Authorities have not provided further details about Bao’s situation,” the South China Morning Post offered.
Chen’s case echoes a 2016 investigation, when video streaming pioneer Wang Xin was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison and fined 1 million yuan by the Beijing Haidian District People’s Court, which found him guilty of ‘distributing obscene materials for personal gain.’”
The government charged Wang with “providing easy access to pornography” through his platform.
The weaponization of obscenity laws against tech companies and moguls over third-party content published on platforms, and against other politically controversial individuals, has been routine in totalitarian regimes worldwide.
In the U.S., Section 230 shields tech companies from liability over third-party content, and discourages government abuse of sensational sex-related accusations to target companies and individuals.