Thurman Maoyibe claimed a waiter in Paris had given her workbooks left by a Chinese schoolboy and set out on a mission to return them Chinese authorit

China kicks top influencer off social media for fabricating viral story of boy’s lost homework

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2024-04-17 10:00:04

Thurman Maoyibe claimed a waiter in Paris had given her workbooks left by a Chinese schoolboy and set out on a mission to return them

Chinese authorities have shut down the social media accounts of a top influencer for fabricating the viral story of a boy’s missing homework in Paris.

Sina Weibo, WeChat and Douyin accounts of Thurman Maoyibei, 29, were removed after a police investigation found that she had fabricated the story.

Ms Xu posted a video on 16 February claiming that a waiter at a coffee shop in Paris handed her two holiday workbooks that belonged to a student named Quin Lang. She then jumped on the mission to return the books to the grade 1 boy in China.

The video quickly went viral in China and sparked the search for the boy, with hashtags such as "Grade 1 Class 8 Qin Lang" getting millions of views on Weibo, a microblogging site, and Douyin, the name for TikTok in China.

A week after posting the first video, Ms Xu posted another clip claiming that she had got in touch with the boy’s family and returned the books.