Chinese influencer’s account with 13 million fans frozen after court finds false claim of sexual advances for ‘low cost’ contract exit

The plot fell apart when another employee who made a similar claim ‘succumbed to her conscience’ and confessed to the fabrication. The motive for the employees’ crime was to avoid penalty fees stipulated in their contracts for taking up jobs with a business competitor. — SCMP

A Chinese influencer’s Douyin account, which has more than 13 million followers, has been frozen by a court order after she was found to have fabricated a sexual harassment complaint against her manager.

The 25-year-old influencer, surnamed Liu, is known online for her cosplay as animation and TV characters under the handle @SienXiaohuijun. In December last year, a court in China’s northern Hebei province found that she had invented a story about her manager making sexual advances and told her colleagues so she could terminate her contract without paying a large penalty and join a competitor.