Pain for clicks: Inside China’s violent ‘PK livestreaming’ craze despite crackdowns

A viral video showed a frantic woman, surnamed Li, trying to escape from her husband, surnamed Cai, at home. She was eventually captured and restrained in a small room.

In another video, Li was seen sitting on the floor and sobbing, covered by a dirty quilt, while begging Cai for food.

According to Chinese media reports, the couple was placed under “administrative detention” for five days – over fabricating videos that “caused a negative impact on society”.

Cai later admitted to concocting the controversial clips to gain followers and also confessed that he had been jealous of online celebrities who made huge profits from livestreaming.

Another incident in 2025 saw four people from the southeastern Jiangxi province streaming themselves carrying out acts like stapling nails to their limbs, whipping themselves with belts and piercing their lips with pins.

The group was similarly punished for staging “vulgar livestreams”.

Disturbing and vulgar livestreaming content is “largely a result of intensifying competition within China’s livestreaming industry”, said Xu Jian, an associate professor from Deakin University.

“Audiences have become highly familiar with conventional formats like talent (shows and) performances so PK livestreamers are increasingly (staging) more sensational and exaggerated activities to attract attention,” Xu said.

“EXTREMELY DIFFICULT” TO CENSOR IN REAL TIME

Experts said many PK streamers easily bypass state censors and bans with their “strong understanding” of how platform moderation systems work.

“They often rely on euphemisms, indirect performances, or shifting interactions to private channels to avoid penalties,” said Guo Shaohua, an associate professor from Carleton College in Minnesota, noting that most social media platforms carried out moderation using AI – filtering out keywords to monitor and regulate content.

User reports are also vital for flagging inappropriate content, experts said.