Tencent Video sorry for message that Typhoon Lekima nearly wiped out population of Chinese province Shandong
- China’s biggest video-streaming platform sent a push notification to subscribers that said almost everyone in the region had died
- Company apologises for any harm caused, saying the error was the result of ‘editorial mistakes’ and it would conduct a review of its work practices
Tencent Video has apologised for sending a message saying Typhoon Lekima had nearly wiped out the entire population of Shandong province in eastern China.
The push notification sent to subscribers on Monday quoted the provincial emergency management department as saying that nearly everyone in the region had died, and seven people were missing.
It was followed by another message that put the death toll at five.
Later in the day, the Chinese video-streaming website owned by Tencent posted a statement on social media network Weibo saying the error was the result of “editorial mistakes” and apologising for any harm caused. It said it would carry out a strict review of its work practices.
Shandong is one of China’s most populous provinces, with 99 million residents at the 2016 census.
Lekima, the fifth-worst typhoon to hit the country in 70 years, battered Shandong and other parts of eastern China over the weekend. The typhoon claimed 49 lives after it made landfall at Wenling in Zhejiang on Saturday morning and then moved north across Shanghai, Jiangsu and Shandong.