
China’s version of TikTok suspends users for speaking Cantonese
ByteDance’s short video app Douyin has been urging live streamers to switch to the country’s official language
With about 68 million native speakers, Cantonese is the second most widely spoken Chinese language. But if you’re trying to use it in a live stream on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, it might get you banned.
This is what happened to Nicolas Leung. His account received three 10-minute bans over the last three weeks accompanied by prompts to switch to Mandarin, China’s official language, while using Douyin’s live streaming function.

According to Douyin owner ByteDance, the issue with live streaming isn’t about the language -- it’s about content. The company said in a statement that it’s “committed to building out moderation capabilities for additional languages” for Douyin Livestream, with Cantonese being a top priority.
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China has strict content regulations scrutinizing everything from vulgarity and violence to criticism of the government. The company singled out pornography and hate speech as things it aims to protect users from in live streams.
Paulk didn’t elaborate on how this happened, and ByteDance did not respond to questions concerning Paulk’s allegation. But the company responded quickly to questions from Abacus concerning content moderation policies. The company said live streaming is a “newer feature,” which first rolled out quietly in early 2018.
Elliott Zaagman, co-host of China Tech Investor podcast, said that moderation issues could stem from the company’s fast growth.
“For any large platform, the demand for content moderation is very difficult to meet,” he said. But ByteDance also has to factor in China’s regulation of online content, which sets even higher demands for tech companies to fulfill. Still, Zaagman said not being able to moderate the country’s second most spoken language seems “ridiculous.”
ByteDance said that those moderation rules no longer apply and that the company adjusts its guidelines for different markets.

“We express our regret and hope that Douyin can solve this problem as soon as possible, because every place’s language should be protected and nourished,” Leung said.
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