The Southern Metropolis Daily recently exposed a fraud based on broadcasting fake live charity shows. The shows were shot in Daliangshan, a remote and impoverished area of China, and broadcast through a platform called the Kuaishou Application. It is reported that the show’s six anchors went to Daliangshan and donated some money to the poor people there, in order to gain popularity and receive more “gifts” from their audience. After the show ended, they took the money back.
According to people who work in the charity sector in Daliangshan, the anchors had supposedly been “active in charity” in the area since September. After the live show, they took back the money they had donated and gave people a few dozen Yuan and something to eat. The frauds were always operated by a team of three or four people, who were respectively in charge of video recording, editing and live show management. In a video one of the anchors revealed that one of these “volunteers” went as far as putting dirt on the faces of poor children to make them look more miserable, in order to push the audience to send more gifts, meaning more money to the anchors.
Referring to this scandal, the Kuaishou Application platform has officially responded by claiming that they have already frozen the related accounts and contacted the police to investigate. However, the report reveals that some of the anchors are still uploading videos through their accounts.
According to some experts, 2016 will mark the beginning of a new era of live shows. The “live show + charity” model could play a significant role in the charitable sector, however the emergence of this kind of fraud is worrying people in both sectors. Not only is it unethical to make a profit by taking advantage of the poor people in remote areas, but the Daliangshan fraud violated the new Charity Law’s provisions. The local departments of civil affairs and public security have carried out an investigation but the results have yet to be released.
