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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

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China’s version of TikTok suspends users for speaking Cantonese
Masha Borak
This article originally appeared on ABACUS

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.

And he’s not the only one. Cantonese-speaking content creators have been expressing dissatisfaction over Douyin urging users to speak Putonghua, the Chinese word for Mandarin that literally means “common language.” This is despite the fact that the platform doesn’t appear to have any listed rules governing the use of different languages.
A Douyin user showing a system warning to switch to Mandarin, along with an instructional video on how to use Douyin Livestream that recommends using the national language. (Picture: Douyin)
A Douyin user showing a system warning to switch to Mandarin, along with an instructional video on how to use Douyin Livestream that recommends using the national language. (Picture: Douyin)
Language has been a point of contention in the Cantonese-speaking southern province of Guangdong, where locals once went out into the streets to protest a proposal to have television broadcasters switch to Mandarin. Cantonese is also widely spoken in Hong Kong, which borders Guangdong.

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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