BEIJING – It was around 10pm on Dec 22 when users of Chinese short-video and live-streaming platform Kuaishou suddenly found their feeds flooded with vulgar and explicit content, triggering confusion and alarm across the platform.
The company said the incident was a cyberattack, but the sudden spread of such content on a platform with a large user base of young people raised fresh questions about the effectiveness of Kuaishou’s youth-protection safeguards.
Many users reported being suddenly exposed to a flood of disturbing, violent and pornographic live-streaming content, which netizens described online as “unprecedented” and “wildly inappropriate”.
Kuaishou, which had up to 408 million erage daily active users in the first quarter of 2025, is a major rival to Douyin, China’s version of TikTok.
While some accounts were swiftly banned as the platform’s backend review systems kicked in, the illegal content continued to surge through newly created accounts, Chinese media reports cited users as saying. Some live-stream rooms reportedly attracted tens of thousands of viewers.
Some users screen-recorded videos and disseminated them to friends via other platforms such as WeChat, according to the reports. In China, it is illegal to share obscene content in private chats and may lead to legal penalties.
Others took to other Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo to express their shock, with many suspecting that Kuaishou had been hacked or its censorship system had malfunctioned.
One wrote: “I can’t believe this; has Kuaishou gone mad? It’s live-streaming pornographic materials with no restrictions.” Another wrote: “Kuaishou is crazy now! Reporting the vulgar content is useless.”
Chinese media reports said Kuaishou shut down its live-streaming function around midnight in response to the incident.
The Hong Kong-listed company issued a statement in the early hours of Dec 23 and said it had immediately activated “emergency response measures” following the cyberattack.
After making “all-out efforts” to handle the incident and repair its systems, Kuaishou said in its statement that the live-streaming function had gradually resumed normal service.
The company condemned the illegal and criminal activities carried out by “black and grey market” actors. It said it had reported the incident to the relevant authorities, filed a police report and would take appropriate legal measures where needed.
On Dec 23, the day after the incident, shares of Kuaishou Technology fell as much as 6 per cent, hitting a near five-week low.
On the same day, the app jumped to second place on the free app chart on China’s Apple App Store.
Kuaishou has a “youth mode”, which is designed to restrict minors’ access to certain functions and potentially harmful content, such as limits on live-stream viewing deemed unsuitable for underage users.
It also has usage controls such as curfews on minors using the app between 10pm and 6am.
However, regulators and media reports he previously flagged shortcomings in how the system, which is widely known to be easy to circumvent, is implemented.
In November 2024, Kuaishou was given a warning by regulators for spreading content that bordered on pornography and failing to properly enforce its youth-protection mechanisms, including its “youth mode”.
More on this topicTikTok says cyberattack targeted brands and celebrity accounts, including CNNAs cyber piranhas circle, uncomfortable alliances must hold the line