China has penalised 10 of the country’s most popular live-streaming apps, suspending some of their operations in a renewed crackdown on fast-growing services backed by Tencent and ByteDance.
Regulators singled out ByteDance’s Xigua and three apps run by Tencent-backed firms — Bilibili, Huya and DouYu International — among those subject to punishments ranging from halting new user sign-ups to suspending content updates for “main channels”, the Cyberspace Administration of China said in a notice posted on Tuesday.
Both Huya and DouYu, which divide content into channels like games or entertainment, posted in the main recommendation section of their apps that they have “suspended updates” since Tuesday, without elaborating.
Representatives for Baidu, Bilibili, ByteDance, Huya, NetEase and DouYu didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
In April, Chinese regulators suspended key channels in Baidu’s flagship mobile app, citing vulgar content.
