Tough Crowd: Comedian's Jokes Trigger Probe of Popular Chinese App

In announcing the investigation, China's Culture and Tourism Ministry said Jinri Toutiao has allowed a martyr to be portrayed in a negative light. It didn't make any statement on potential penalties. The incident caught the public's attention two weeks ago, leading the comic's producer to apologize on his Twitter-like Sina Weibo account. Jinri Toutiao issued an apology on its own platform and removed the offending content. In April, a Bytedance comedy app was shut down by Chinese authorities on the grounds it had hosted lewd content.