SHANGHAI: A Chinese influencer, who claims to be a Harvard Business School graduate and cultivates a “wealthy persona”, has had her social media account banned after promoting health supplements as cancer-curing medicines.
The fashion blogger, known by her alias Maiqila, boasts 143,000 followers on Xiaohongshu.
The majority of her income comes from selling health-enhancing products, alongside jewellery and cosmetics, according to The Paper.
During a live-streaming session in mid-November, Maiqila claimed to have sold health products worth 20 million yuan (US$2.8 million) in a single day, with weekly revenue reaching 260 million yuan (US$36 million).
She suggested that her products could treat various diseases and employed tactics to evade regulatory scrutiny while promoting their miraculous effects. For instance, she used the English abbreviation “CA” to refer to cancer.
One of her products, a monk fruit compressed slice marketed as a dietary supplement, was touted as capable of eliminating various cysts and even malignant tumours.
Another product, a powder made from dragon tree leaves, was claimed to cure conditions associated with blood blockages, such as cerebral infarction, uraemia, and cancer, and even to treat acute poisoning.
Additionally, she promoted a type of lutein capsule as a miracle cure for cataracts, glaucoma, and vision impairment.
The Paper discovered that none of these three products carried medicinal labels on their packaging.
To build customer trust, Maiqila displayed screenshots of several US-based English-language newspapers, asserting that the beneficial effects of her products had been reported by foreign media.
“If you have nang and zhong (the two Chinese characters for cyst) or CA (cancer), or other issues that cannot be resolved by doctors, our products can help. We can assist you in overcoming these problems,” Maiqila stated during her live-stream.
“Purchase our products and send them to relatives or friends with serious illnesses. They will surely be grateful to you. You are helping others and accumulating virtue for yourself,” she added.
On Nov 25, Xiaohongshu informed The Paper that Maiqila’s account was suspended for violating rules regarding product promotion.
Her account has been labelled as “risky”, with all her videos removed from the platform, the Post found.
False advertising is not uncommon during live-streaming events in China.
Two months ago, a prominent Chinese KOL, Crazy Xiaoyangge, who has 100 million followers on Douyin, was fined nearly 70 million yuan (US$9.7 million) by authorities in eastern Anhui province for false advertising related to a domestic mooncake brand and an imported beef roll product. - South China Morning Post
