Chinese influencer issues ‘deepest apology’ for fake video, spreading table tennis lies
Person running the Weibo account sorry that video incited fan groups to attack one another and abuse Paris Olympians Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha
A Chinese sports blogger has been forced to issue a public apology for spreading false information about a retired table tennis athlete, as social media platforms in the country continue to battle against “obsessive fan culture”.
The person running the Weibo account the Most Basketball World, which boasts more than 2.5 million followers, expressed their “deepest apology” after sharing a fake video they admitted damaged the reputations of Olympic champions Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha.
Posted online on Tuesday, the apology came after the country’s biggest social media platforms took action against thousands of accounts for “illegally releasing false information [and] insulting and abusing athletes, coaches and referees”.
“I express my deepest apologies for spreading false information about [retired two-time Olympic champion] Mr Liu Guoliang’s comment that ‘the influence of runner-up Sun Yingsha is greater than that of champion Chen Meng’,” the post said.
“To attract attention and traffic, I publicly released a video without verifying its authenticity, causing many users to attack and abuse the Chinese Table Tennis Association and the Chinese Table Tennis Team, inciting fan groups to confront [one another], and causing Mr Liu Guoliang, Ms Chen Meng, Ms Sun Yingsha and others to be ‘labelled’ for a long time, which had a very negative impact.”
After Chen won gold in the women’s singles table tennis final at the Paris Games, a video circulated on Chinese social media showing Liu, who was also a seven-time world champion, saying that Sun’s influence had surpassed that of the current Olympic champion.
