Tencent-backed live-streaming platform Douyu pulled from app stores in China
The removal from app stores, which comes amid an ongoing content crackdown in China, would prevent new users from downloading the app but not affect current users
Tencent-backed live-streaming platform Douyu has been removed from a number of Chinese smartphone app stores. The Wuhan-based answer to Twitch was not available on Apple’s China app store on Wednesday and a search of Xiaomi and Huawei smartphone stores only showed a basic version with limited functionality.
Douyu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter. The removal from app stores would prevent new users from downloading the app but not affect existing users.
The app’s removal follows a crackdown by Beijing on content it deems inappropriate – which includes “pornography” and “illegal” online content, according to a Xinhua report in August. Users of live-streaming sites in China now need to register under real names, while platforms should set up a black list of offending broadcasters, and improve vetting mechanisms to guard against illegal or harmful content, Xinhua said, citing an industry notice.
The moves comes as Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, announced it would be stopping any new users registering for its services under 14 years’ old.
In April, four news apps, including Jinri Toutiao and ifeng News, were removed from app stores for two weeks amid a move by authorities to “clean up” the broadcasting environment. In July, Nasdaq-listed video sharing site Bilibili was pulled for a month after being criticised by state-owned television for inappropriate content. China has now has shut down more than 13,000 websites in the last three years.