Alibaba suspends staff after rape allegation

ALIBABA, the Chinese e-commerce giant, said yesterday it had suspended staff and was cooperating with police after a female employee’s sexual assault allegation went viral on social media.

The woman posted an essay on an internal Alibaba group chat about a recent business trip, claiming a senior colleague and a client forced her to drink excessive alcohol at a karaoke bar.

She alleged that the client had molested her at the bar, and her colleague had later raped her at a hotel while she was unconscious. She said she had reported what happened to the company, but had been stonewalled.

Yesterday, her account and discussions of the allegations were among the top-viewed items on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like messaging platform, after having apparently been shared by Alibaba employees.

Alibaba said it had a “zero-tolerance policy against sexual misconduct”.

“We have suspended relevant parties suspected of violating our policies and values, and we have established a special internal task force to investigate the issue and support the ongoing police investigation,” it said in a statement.

Police in the eastern city of Jinan, where the alleged assaults took place, said they were investigating a case involving a female Alibaba employee.