Chinese authorities are cracking down on “inappropriate and erotic” content on live-streaming sites, and have now officially banned “seductively eating bananas” and wearing stockings and suspenders. Anyone at Jezebel will attest that that is literally my entire diet and wardrobe, so this news is disconcerting to me personally.
In April, the Ministry of Culture reportedly announced that every major live-streaming website (Douyu, Panda.tv, YY, Zhanqi TV, and Huya) would be investigated regarding whether the sites hosted content that “harms social morality” such as pornography or violent content.
All of the sites have now been forced to exert more control over their most popular hosts, which are, according to CCTVNews, “predominately attractive women showing their cleavage.”
The BBC reports:
New Express Daily cites data showing that 26% of live-streaming viewers are under 18, while 60% of those creating the content are under 22 years old. Three-quarters of those watching are male, it says.
News of the banana ban has prompted thousands of users to chime in on Chinese social media. Some are more concerned with the young women choosing to take part in live streaming, but others are a bit baffled by how the rules will be enforced. “How do they decide what’s provocative when eating a banana?” one person asks. Another wonders: “Can male live-streamers still eat them?”
“They will all start eating cucumbers, and if that’s no good, yams,” one person reportedly posted.
If you start feeling a void in your content consumption as a result of the ban, I’ll go ahead and recommend my own Periscope show, which is just me eating $40 of takeout unaware that I’ve accidentally turned on my computer camera.
Image via Getty.
GET JEZEBEL RIGHT IN YOUR INBOX
Still here. Still without airbrushing. Still with teeth.
