Chinese social media companies condemn hate speech against Japanese after knife attack

China’s top social media companies have condemned online hate speech targeting Japanese, delivering a vigorous response to comments triggered by a knife attack last week that killed one person and injured a Japanese mother and child.

Such waves of sentiment, and a vocal nationalist element, are not uncommon, but companies from WeChat-owner Tencent to TikTok’s ByteDance-owned sister-site Douyin, Weibo opens new tab and NetEase condemned last week’s remarks.

“These comments have disrupted the positive and peaceful atmosphere of the platform and even incited unlawful behaviour,” Douyin said in an online post on Sunday, citing “extreme and erroneous statements” that were “promoting xenophobia”.

In the latest of a series of knife attacks nationwide, a Japanese mother and her pre-schooler were injured in the eastern city of Suzhou while waiting for a school bus. A Chinese bus attendant died of injuries suffered during a bid to intervene.

Read more: Reuters