China’s king of titillating content Jinri Toutiao issues apology for providing what the people want

Venture capital investors who called on Jinri Toutiao’s chief executive Zhang Yiming last year wanted to know why so much of the news aggregator’s content focused on societal ills, celebrity gossip and off-colour jokes.

“Every time we run internal tests the results show that viewership drops off precipitously when alternative content like international current affairs, science and technology is served up”, said Zhang, according to investors present at the meeting, speaking on condition their names not be revealed due to the confidential nature of the discussions.

On Wednesday Zhang issued a “self reflective” public apology after the news aggregator, known as Today’s Headline in English, was ordered by central government authorities to close its popular Neihan Duanzi app, know for its off colour jokes, a week after it separately singled out the same site for “vulgar content”. The company was also ordered to take down its eponymous news app Jinri Toutiao from app stores for three weeks, although existings users still have access.

“We let our users down by over emphasising growth and scale over quality and responsibility,” Zhang said in an open letter reminiscent of the “self criticism” of “wrongdoers” during the era of Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

Zhang said Toutiao would “correct the flaws” in its algorithms and machine vetting, expand its vetting team from 6,000 to 10,000 people, and permanently ban creators whose content was “against community values”.