SINGAPORE : Officials in Hangzhou have taken legal action against a local celebrity for “disturbing people get ” in a popular social media movie based on falsehoods.
On Apr 12, they announced that Ms Xu Jiayi, who goes by the online alias “Thurman 猫一杯 ( ‘Maoyibei’ ) ” would face administrative penalties, according to local media. What specific restrictions she may be subject to are not known.
Her accounts on social media websites Douyin, Weibo, and WeChat Video have also been suspended.
On the same day, the Ministry of Public Security named Ms Xu’s event in a list of 10 high-profile instances of propaganda.
A nationwide campaign to combat the spread of virtual rumors and false information was launched in December 2023 to support the list.
In February, the 29-year-old influence and fashion investor filmed herself in a Paris cafe, attempting to locate the owner of two missing college textbooks.
The servant claimed he had found the books in the restaurant bath, and she received them.
Miss Xu made an appeal to her estimated 40 million followers to locate the author of the books, who was allegedly a boy up in China.
“Qin Lang from class eight, level one, your wintertime vacation research was left in a bathroom in Paris, ” Xu said to the cameras, according to Chinese news site Sixth Tone.
Local media reported that the film, shared on various social media platforms on Feb 16, went popular, racking up more than 5 million likes on Douyin, China ’s version of TikTok, in just a few days.
During the 2024 Spring Festival trip, which began on February 10, it also rose to third place on the Chinese lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu’s top trending topic.
A netizen from Nantong in Jiangsu posted a claim to be “Qin Lang’s uncle ” in the comments section of one social media platform the following day. Yang used this state to spread rumours, level images and streams, as well as fuelling an internet-wide seek for “Qin Lang”.
People all over China joined the hunt for the younger boy, and content about the ebooks received millions of views. West Lake District Public Security Bureau in Ms Xu’s home Hangzhou, received but some tipoffs, it involved its digital police unit.
Ms. Xu claimed to have found Qin Lang’s family in a post from the same day as last February 19 and was reported by the local press and the ministry of public security. ”
Nevertheless, it was eventually revealed that she had fabricated the whole story. Officials discovered no documentation of a pupil named Qin Lang flying abroad during the Spring Festival time.
Eventually, the public safety authorities learned that Ms. Xu and her firm director, who is only known as” Xue,” had purchased false textbooks online and staged videos to get posted on social media.
The Chinese Ministry of Public Security issued a warning to members of the public on April 12 that the wonderful account, which had “quickly aroused the interest and heated conversations across the internet, ” was falsified.
“Currently, the open protection firms in Hangzhou, Zhejiang have imposed sanctions on Xu, Xue and the firms involved, ” the department wrote. They were also instructed to formally apologize and had their accounts banned. ”
Yang was also given a sentence and a moratorium on his profile, said the government.
CNA conducted a search and discovered that several of Thurman’s social media accounts had been deleted. Weibo, a movie hosting service, and WeChat were just a few of them.