Tik Tok, Tik Tok: Chinese court uses video platform to give debtors the hurry-up
Video setting alleged debtors’ names and addresses to music gains thousands of views as authorities favour public shaming as means of retrieving money
A court in central China has turned to the music video app Douyin – known as Tik Tok in other countries – to reveal alleged debtors’ personal details in an attempt to persuade them to pay up, local media reported.
Kaifeng Longting People’s Court in Longting, Henan province, has made a video displaying the names of eight debtors along with the amounts it says they owe, their addresses and partial identities, set to dramatic background music, HNR.CN reported last Friday.
Posted on Thursday last week, it had been viewed more than 8,000 times in its first week on the platform.
A spokesperson for the court told HNR.CN on Monday that they had chosen the tactic to attract the attention and support of more people and “compress the surviving space” of the alleged debtors.
It follows the use of Douyin last month by a court in Nanning, in southern China’s Guangxi province, to disclose information about 10 debtors, with rewards offered to find them.
