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China’s app crackdown removes 370 livestreaming apps

Major players like Douyu and Huya also under investigation

China’s app crackdown removes 370 livestreaming apps

China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism has gone into overdrive of late as it cleans house and punishes rule breakers in the apps space.

Technode reports that it has inspected more than 4,900 livestreaming apps and removed 370 of them from app stores in the country for breaking its stringent rules.

Meanwhile 14 companies have been blacklisted after they were found to be operating under fraudulent licenses. These companies were also summarily told to close down 57 live-streaming apps that they had been operating.

Widespread issues

Major players including Huajiao, 6.cn, Panda.tv, Douyu, Huya - the latter two received a combined $1 billion in funding from Tencent recently, while Huya is also heading for an IPO - are also under investigation.

The Ministry is looking into whether the companies are hosting content that promotes “violence, pornography, gambling, superstition, and other values harmful to public morality”. Other aspects of the investigation include whether these platforms require users to register under their real identity.

Technode said 190 cases of rules violations have been found so far from an audit of 30 live-streaming platforms.

The news comes after we recently reported that the Chinese government had been cracking down on developers, publishers and mobile platform holders.

Online games portal TapTap was slapped with a fine and had its services temporarily suspended for violating games publishing laws.

Other games companies hit with fines included Tencent, MOKI, IM30 and more.

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Head of Content

Craig Chapple is a freelance analyst, consultant and writer with specialist knowledge of the games industry. He has previously served as Senior Editor at PocketGamer.biz, as well as holding roles at Sensor Tower, Nintendo and Develop.