Internet celebrity “Qi Tiandao” has been detained for administrative reasons. Why do popular influencers with millions of followers frequently encounter scandals?
The absence of boundaries and the hope for a permanent ban have stirred outrage among netizens, but what is it all about? The situation can be traced back to a recent police announcement from Sanya, Hainan Province, which revealed that an internet celebrity known as “Qi Tiandao,” who has over 40 million followers on a certain video platform, was placed under administrative detention for 10 days after performing vulgar acts during a live broadcast. This news quickly attracted widespread attention.
The incident began on the afternoon of November 30, when “Qi Tiandao” was live streaming outdoors in Sanya. To gain attention from fans, he behaved inappropriately towards female tourists, eliciting a strong backlash and numerous reports from netizens.
On December 4, the Haitang branch of the Sanya Municipal Public Security Bureau announced that Meng (28 years old, online alias “Qi Tiandao”) had planned and scripted vulgar videos, hiring women to participate (the woman depicted as being “harassed” in the video). These acts, streamed online, had a severely adverse impact. Consequently, Meng was administratively detained for 10 days, and the case is under further investigation.
The announcement of “Qi Tiandao” being dealt with by the police has raised considerable concern among interviewees about the proliferation of such vulgar videos, which could mislead young internet users.
“Qi Tiandao” had previously faced significant backlash for his consistently low-quality live streaming content and was reported multiple times. Following this latest live incident, the streaming rights on his platform were first temporarily banned for 15 days. When journalists searched for “Qi Tiandao” on the platform’s app before publishing this article, it showed that the account had already been banned, and its status was “account banned, temporarily unable to operate.” However, it is still unclear whether this ban is temporary or permanent.
Zhao Jingwu, an associate professor at the School of Law of Beihang University, stated that incidents like this are detrimental to the healthy development of the entire live streaming industry, as they easily foster materialism, violent elements, and other harmful content, which could lead to a widespread negative trend. In the long run, a “malicious atmosphere” may emerge in the online space, and some internet anchors might “copy” similar unscrupulous methods to gain user traffic. For teenagers, this could transmit misleading signals of values, encouraging imitation that is harmful to their healthy growth.
The incident involving “Qi Tiandao” is just a microcosm of the vulgar chaos in the online realm. If a negative list for “internet celebrities” for the year 2024 were created, it would likely include numerous names. According to the “2024 China Internet Audio-Visual Development Research Report,” by December 2023, the number of professional live streamers in China had reached 15.08 million. There have always been some internet anchors who, in pursuit of attention, continually disseminate vulgar, violent, or harmful information, even resorting to extreme measures that breach legal boundaries. These phenomena have sparked public discussions about how to regulate the behavior of internet celebrities and what legal responsibilities live streamers should bear.
For instance, “Northeast Rain Sister,” who boasts over 5.8 million followers, faced criticism for claiming she sold authentic sweet potato noodles during a live stream and promising substantial refunds for counterfeit products. However, testing revealed that her noodles contained no sweet potato but were made from cassava flour. Additionally, she faced controversies for staging videos. Cumulatively, these incidents led to her account being banned from gaining followers.
Moreover, numerous internet celebrities have faced scrutiny this year, such as “Cat One Cup,” who spread false rumors about Qin Lang’s lost homework in France, and “Wang Hongquan Star,” who fabricated luxurious lifestyle narratives. Their actions expose a trend: driven by traffic, internet celebrities often resort to staging, exaggerating claims, tax evasion, and vulgar methods to capture attention.
Zhao Jingwu emphasized that all internet anchors should strictly regulate their streaming behavior. Regulatory bodies like the National Radio and Television Administration and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism have established the “Code of Conduct for Internet Anchors,” specifically addressing the phenomenon of “vulgar live streaming,” and urging anchors to maintain a healthy style and to consciously reject lowbrow tastes and negative trends.
To effectively address the disorder in online live streaming, China has implemented various regulations and policies, including the “Internet Live Streaming Service Management Regulations,” “Trial Measures for Online Live Streaming Marketing Management,” and “Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Regulatory Management of Online Live Streaming.” The Cyberspace Administration launched a special campaign this year to address issues of false and vulgar trends in the live streaming environment. However, even with the growth of the live streaming economy, incidents like that of “Qi Tiandao” continue to arise. Experts were called upon to interpret how to curb this phenomenon.
Under the current legislative framework, online platforms hold the responsibility of reviewing the content of live streams. In the case of “Qi Tiandao,” many netizens felt that the platform’s response was too slow, indicating existing gaps in regulatory oversight.
The “Internet Live Streaming Service Management Regulations” stipulate that platforms must fulfill their primary responsibilities, employing a professional team that is appropriate to their service scale, while implementing systems for information review, security management, inspection, emergency response, and technical support. Assessing whether a platform has failed in its responsibility involves considering factors like the prominence of illegal streaming behavior and the timeliness of the platform’s response. Some netizens and experts have suggested improvements for better oversight.
Huang Yanqing, an associate professor at Fuzhou University School of Law, proposed encouraging the establishment of industry behavior standards for internet celebrities, urging content creators to sign self-regulatory agreements and promoting public reporting of inappropriate online behaviors to foster a collective effort to resist problematic internet celebrities.
Zhao Jingwu further suggested that platforms could adopt a dual approach of “human + machine” reviews, a blacklist system, a real-name registration system, and pre-employment training to strengthen monitoring of internet anchors’ behavior. Platforms should strictly enforce internal compliance management mechanisms for live streaming content, treating all anchors equally, whether they are prominent figures or newcomers. Particularly for major streamers, given their high visibility and wide audience, more detailed management should be applied based on their streaming styles, including assigning dedicated internal reviewers to oversee content. Only through a tiered and categorized management system can comprehensive governance of the entire short video oversight process be achieved.
