App that streamed daredevil’s death plunge to pay mother £3,400
A LIVE video streaming service has been ordered to pay 30,000 yuan (£3,400) to the mother of a daredevil who fell to his death from a 62-storey skyscraper after he filmed himself doing pull-ups on a ledge. Wu Yong ning, 26, was performing the stunt on the roof of the Huayuan International Centre in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, in November 2017, when he slipped and fell.
A Beijing court ruled that video streaming app Huajiao failed to “ensure the safety and security” of Wu and was partly responsible for his death, the South China Morning Post reported, illustrating how online streaming companies could be found in breach of their duty of care if they allow users to carry out dangerous or reckless stunts.
Grim video footage posted online shows the moment Wu loses his grip on the ledge of the skyscraper and suddenly disappears from view.
In the video, he is seen attempting to clean or dry off the surface of the ledge before hesitantly swinging over the edge and performing several pull-ups, only to lose his grip and appear to panic as he tries to scramble back to safety before slipping off the ledge. His body was found on the terrace below by the skyscraper’s cleaners.
Wu uploaded more than 200 live streams of his urban stunts, and was paid around 55,000 yuan (£6,200) for each by his fans, who were encouraged to donate if they enjoyed the video.
Critics accused Huajiao of enabling and profiting from dangerous exploits by young Chinese people such as Wu, who reportedly was trying to raise money for his poor relatives.