Livestreaming platforms need to be regulated

Luoxiaomaomaozi, a livestreaming anchor with half a million followers on social networking sites, drank a cup of pesticide during a livestreaming show on Friday and had to be rushed to hospital where she died.

In an earlier livestreaming show, she had told her followers that she suffered from depression and had even contemplated suicide.

However, when she took out the bottle of pesticide during her live show, few doubted her intentions. Some even sent her messages encouraging her to drink it quickly. She did that and called the ambulance, but the doctors couldn’t save her.

Her mother now wants to sue the followers who pushed her to the brink. If she does so, it will be up to the court to decide if the followers can be held responsible.

Apart from her followers, the livestreaming platform, too, could have saved her life.

In 2018, a man surnamed Yang had encouraged a woman who was trying to jump into a river from a bridge in Dengzhou city in Henan province to not look back. And when she jumped, he made a video and shared it on a video-sharing app. While the woman, thankfully, was rescued, Yang was detained for nine days.

It may not be possible to change the nature of people, but tragedies can be averted if people exhibiting risky behavior are not encouraged to take their lives. The moment Luoxiaomaomaozi said she had contemplated suicide, she should have been barred from livestreaming and the platform should have called the police. The same could have been done before in the case of the woman in Dengzhou.

Most platforms just look at the accounts of those exhibiting risky behavior, and wash their hands of their responsibilities.

To prevent such tragedies, it is necessary to regulate the livestreaming sector.