Kuaishou closes livestreaming accounts over suicide footage

-- Kuaishou closes livestreaming accounts

-- Qingyang teacher barred for harassment

-- Two held for cheering as girl jumps off building

-- Suicide sparks online soul-searching

-- Father blames school sexual assault for teen's suicide

Chinese video-streaming app Kuaishou has deleted 12 user accounts after they livestreamed the suicide of a 19-year-old woman in Qingyang, Gansu province.

The woman, identified as Li, leapt from the eighth floor of a department store on June 20 as a crowd watched from below. In footage recorded at the scene, onlookers can be heard cheering and applauding as Li falls to her death.

Kuaishou said it had found three accounts that had posted inappropriate videos of the incident and nine others with inappropriate comments. All 12 accounts have been deleted, it said on Tuesday.

The social media company said it has strengthened the review process for videos and can now monitor and interrupt livestreams that contain inappropriate content.

Li’s death sparked widespread anger online. In the videos, Li is seen sitting on a ledge for hours while rescue workers try to talk her down. Some passers-by on the street below heckled, shouting: “Why haven’t you jumped yet?”

The woman’s father said his daughter suffered from severe depression, which was exacerbated by unwanted physical contact by her high school teacher, Wu Yonghou, who allegedly held and kissed her in September 2016.

After the incident at school, the father said Li attempted suicide four times by trying to overdose on drugs or threatening to jump off buildings.

A spokesman for the Qingyang education bureau said on Tuesday that the teacher has since been removed from his post and banned from teaching for life.

Police have detained two onlookers who applauded, while six others suspected of filming and cheering on the incident have been urged to turn themselves in, the city’s public security bureau said on Monday.

Zhang Yangfei contributed to this story.