On June 3, Austin Li, one of the biggest livestreamers in China — also known as the “Lipstick King” — was suddenly cut off after appearing to hold up a tank-shaped ice-cream dessert. Shortly after he would put it down to “technical difficulties.” But his followers suspected that it was the potential reference to the June 4 anniversary of Tiananmen Square that triggered government censors. The account then remained inactive with no posts, streams, or social media — until his very recent return.
And only at the end of last year, Viya, the “Livestreaming Queen,” was fined $210.16 million (1.34 billion RMB) for tax evasion. The famous Chinese influencer is accused of hiding her personal income and other financial cases between 2019 and 2020. Despite having over 18 million Weibo followers and more than 80 million Taobao followers, everything changed for the celeb: she is now banned from social media and e-commerce platforms.
