Popular livestream anchor Xinba was banned in the middle of his live broadcast on Douyin for conveying false information and insults.
What Happened: Popular livestream anchor Xin Youzhi, known as Xinba and ‘sales king,’ was banned by Douyin at noon on November 2 for repeatedly publishing false information, insulting people, and provoking conflict on China’s version of TikTok, according to Chinese news outlet The Paper, which quoted people familiar with the issue.
His Douyin account, operating under the identifier XYZI818 and boasting over 4.15 million fans, disappeared one hour after he had started a broadcast selling various goods.
On November 1, Xinba accused Douyin during a livestream of double standards, saying: “I don’t care about this platform, nor do I care about Douyin’s traffic. You can erase everything about me. I don’t care.”
The ban comes as the Singles’ Day (Double 11) shopping festival gets underway.
The Jing Take: In 2020, Xinba was caught misselling sugar water as bird’s nest soup, an expensive delicacy in China made from the solidified saliva of swiftlets, on short video platform Kuaishou. His account was banned for 60 days.
More recently, he was embroiled in a dispute with a mattress company he was collaborating with, later terminating the tie-up. The distributor had complained Xinba was selling its products too cheaply, denting its profit. The mattresses are usually sold at $2,730 (20,000 RMB) each in offline retail stores, while Xinba sold them at less than $680 (5,000 RMB) on Kuaishou.
Earlier this year, Douyin introduced new regulations governing anchors’ online behavior, including bans on vulgar chat, unfair competition, and malicious speculation.
