‘Plastic’ seaweed? Chinese producers lose millions after rumours spread through viral video
Video clip went viral on the internet in China falsely claiming some of the produce sold in Fujian province was artificial, newspaper reports
Seaweed producers in southeast China say they have lost hundreds of millions of yuan in two weeks after a video went viral on the internet alleging that some of their produce was made of plastic, according to Chinese media reports.
In the two-minute clip that was widely circulated on social media, a woman questioned whether the seaweed collected by one producer in Jinjiang in Fujian province was real.
“Is this real seaweed? It can’t be broken,” the woman said as she tore up a piece of seaweed.
Jinjiang is China’s biggest seaweed processing hub, selling 40,000 tonnes of the product each year. The city’s seaweed industry produces a revenue of about two billion yuan (US$291 million) annually, according to the Chengdu Business News.
But after the video went viral online a fortnight ago, the local aquatic products industry association said producers had lost as much as hundreds of millions of yuan in revenue over the remarks, the report said.
Some companies said that before the video was uploaded to the internet, they received calls from anonymous people blackmailing them for tens of thousands of yuan by threatening to release the footage.