Chinese short-video and live-streaming platform Kuaishou said it was hit by a coordinated cyberattack by criminal online networks on Monday night, temporarily disrupting its live-streaming services and flooding the platform with illegal pornographic content. The company said automated tools were used to flood live rooms with illegal pornographic content, with dozens of posts appearing every second. Kuaishou said it activated its emergency response plan immediately and has since gradually restored live-streaming functions. Other services on the platform were not affected. Security experts said the incident underscored a widening gap between increasingly automated attacks by illicit networks and platforms’ largely human-based content review systems, which struggle to cope with high-volume, coordinated abuse. Kuaishou said it has reported the incident to public security authorities and relevant regulators, and will pursue legal action to protect its interests. [Kuaishou, in Chinese]
