ByteDance fined by Chinese regulator over illegal medical advertisements
- China has tightened control over online medical advertisements after a college student sought out an experimental treatment and died in 2016
A Chinese regulator has fined ByteDance, the world’s most valuable start-up, for publishing illegal medical advertisements in the news and short-video app operator’s latest brush with the government.
Beijing-based ByteDance, which runs news aggregation site Jinri Toutiao and video app Douyin (known as Tik Tok outside mainland China), was ordered to pay a total of 3.7 million yuan (US$533,000) in fines by a Beijing local commerce administration.
The latest fine of 3 million yuan was levied on November 19 over the company’s failure to submit ads for two health care products and one nonprescription drug for regulatory checks, and for failing to verify the content of the ads, according to China’s national Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.
ByteDance needs to pay the fine within 15 days, according to the verdict. A Bytedance spokeswoman said the company had no comment.
In March, Jinri Toutiao, which means “Today’s Headlines,” was fined 700,000 yuan and named and shamed by People’s Daily and China Central Television for posting online medial advertisements seen as misleading and harmful to the public.
The app had posted nine illegal medical advertisements about tooth and eye health treatments since June 2016, according to a March verdict.
