Woman Broadcasts Fake Suicide On Livestream To Attract Followers, Detained

A Chinese live-streamer has been detained by the police after she claimed she would broadcast her suicide by jumping into a river.

Police in Shijiazhuang, North China's Hebei Province, said the woman threatened to stage her “fake” suicide in an attempt to attract more followers.

In an hour-long live broadcast, the live streamer is seen standing over the edge of a bridge and claiming she would jump into the river. The video quickly attracted over 1,100 netizens, who tried to talk her out of it.

Just as the camgirl felt complacent for drawing people's attention, the police interrupted the fake suicide.

The unidentified live-streamer was detained on suspicion of disrupting public order.

“This so-called ‘internet influencer’ has lost their mind and morality for the sake of earning meaningless popularity. They deserve more severe punishment,” a Chinese netizen said on Sina Weibo.

A similar incident was reported in October when a young woman killed herself by drinking pesticide during a broadcast on the Chinese live-streaming app, Douyin.

“This is probably my last video as I have been suffering from depression for a long time,” 25-year-old Luo Xiao Mao Mao Zi said in her final broadcast on Oct. 14.

She was pronounced dead after being sent to a hospital following the stream.

According to local media, the tragedy took an unexpected turn last week when her ashes were stolen by a crematorium staff member and offered to an unrelated family for a “ghost marriage.”

This is a popular custom in some parts of rural China, where people perform marriages for deceased relatives, in the hope that they will have happy families in the afterlife.

Three men have been detained in connection with the theft, local media reported.

The incident has triggered a massive online outcry. Many netizens have condemned the act, describing it as systematic abuse of women that extends even beyond death.

“If anyone talks again about women not being able to get married at an older age, I’ll tell them women would get wedded in ghost marriages even after they die,” a person commented on the microblogging site Weibo.

The young woman had over 678,000 followers on Douyin.