BEIJING – After the Beijing police said on Saturday (July 31) that they have arrested Kris Wu on rape allegations, almost all traces of the Canadian singer seem to have disappeared from Chinese social media.
His Weibo account, which had more than 50 million followers, no longer exists, nor does the account of his studio.
Most of his songs have also been taken down from several Chinese online platforms, with some netizens noting that such actions were “unprecedented”.
They said that while other scandal-hit celebrities in the past were blacklisted, none of them had their Weibo accounts de-registered.
The Weibo administrator announced late on Sunday that it had shut down 108 discussion threads and 789 groups to “curb irrational behaviour and stop extreme speech” in the wake of Wu’s detention.
It also shut down 990 accounts.
It went on to list some of the affected accounts, many of which were pro-Wu.
Wu, 30, has been embroiled in a scandal after Ms Du Meizhu, 18, accused him of having sex with her while she was unconscious. The Beijing police said on Saturday that they had detained a Canadian by the surname of Wu on suspicions of rape.
The singer, who shot to fame as a member of South Korean-Chinese boy band Exo, had represented brands such as Louis Vuitton, Porsche and Bulgari. They severed their ties with him after the rape allegations surfaced.