A Chinese influencer has died after taking part in an online challenge in which he drank copious amounts of alcohol in a short amount of time. Wang Sanqiange, who goes by Brother Three Thousand, livestreamed himself downing bottles of the spirit Baijiu, which contains between 30% and 60% alcohol, with another influencer. Sanqiange was found dead not long after, CNN reports.
The challenge known as “PK” has been going around Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, for a while. It sees two influencers go head-to-head in a series of competitions. The winner gets gifts and other rewards from viewers while the loser has to drink more alcohol.
Talking to Shangyou News, Sangiange’s friend, identified as Zhao, watched part of the broadcast. “I don’t know how much he had consumed before I tuned in. But in the latter part of the video, I saw him finish three bottles before starting on a fourth,” he said. “The PK games ended at around 1 a.m. and by 1 p.m., (when his family found him) he was gone.”
While this wasn’t the first time the content creator had taken part in online challenges, this sadly turned out to be the most fatal. The video that showed Brother Three Thousand drinking the Baijiu hours before his death has now been removed from Douyin. In the days following his death, clips of the broadcast went viral on social media, though most of these videos are no longer available.
The death of the 35-year-old has started a discussion over the lack of regulation in the social media industry, with streamers taking part in competitions and challenges that are dangerous at best and downright deadly at worst. While China’s National Video and Television Administration and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism are working to ban certain behaviors by livestreamers, there’s still a very long way to go.
