Toutiao CEO apologizes for vulgar content on jokes app

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Zhang Yiming, CEO and founder of Toutiao, a Beijing-based content platform, apologized to the public on Wednesday, a day after China's media regulator ordered the removal of its jokes app, Neihanapp from the app store.

In an open letter published on Toutiao’s WeChat account, Zhang admitted that its products had developed in a wrong way and had violated the core socialist values. Zhang said that he bore responsibility for misleading public opinion and accepted the punishment.

Neihanapp, a jokes App launched by Toutiao in 2012. /VCG Photo

Following a temporary removal of its main app, Jinri Toutiao on Monday, Toutiao’s Neihanapp and its accounts on Chinese social media were then ordered to shut down permanently due to serious vulgar content according to a statement published on the media authority's official website on Tuesday. The statement explained that the decision was made for a clean online audio and visual environment.

Four Apps, including Toutiao were asked to temporarily removed from App stores on Monday. VCG Photo

Having garnered some 120 million daily active users, Toutiao is one of China's largest media platforms for content creation, aggregation and distribution. On its apps, users could have access to trending news, buzzworthy stories, short videos and amusing gifs.

Video Apps by Toutiao. /VCG Photo

The high-flying startup has been noticed by both Internet and media regulators due to the lack of content review. Last month, some deceptive advertisements were reported according to the state TV, China Central Television (CCTV), and Toutiao’s parent company, Beijing ByteDance Technology was fined 944,000 yuan (150,000 US dollars) by Beijing's industrial and commercial authorities.

Almost two days later, some vulgar videos were found on Toutiao’s video-streaming apps and the company was asked to look at its videos closer. Its Huoshan video app was even reported to not have been granted an online audio-visual license, according to Beijing News.

Toutiao's parent company, Beijing ByteDance Technology. /VCG Photo

In Zhang’s apology, nine measures were outlined that would help optimize its content and the community on its apps and social media accounts. Zhang promised that the company will increase the number of staff for reviewing content, instead of the machine filter and create a blacklist to permanently remove users who spread vulgar content.

Along with the permanent removal, Toutiao’s algorithms for pushing content have again taken center stage. It was said that Toutiao fully depended on its algorithms without any manual intervention, which might be the cause of the volume of inappropriate content.

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