Xiaohongshu Photo: CFP

The Chinese lifestyle app, Xiaohongshu, said that the penalty of 300,000 yuan ($47,329) came as Shanghai authorities determined it had failed the review on harmful content for minors, which was reported by the China Media Group (CMG) in December, according to an announcement released by the company on Sunday.

Xiaohongshu's remarks came after some media outlets reported that the company received a heavy fine by the Bureau of Culture and Tourism of Shanghai's Huangpu district for disseminating undesirable content which may be harmful to the physical and mental health of minors.

The penalty topped the trending charts in Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo on Sunday with many netizens expressing their agreement with the decision by the bureau, saying that the company violated the child protection laws because some content may be harmful to minors.

On December 5, the CMG reported that some short videos on Xiaohongshu included scantily-clad teenager livestreamers promoting underwear. Other videos showed teenagers in school uniform and their location, increasing privacy concerns. 

Xiaohongshu said later that the illicit content and users mentioned in CMG's report had been banned and the platform will enhance content review and implement user identity verification. 

The company said in their announcement that the platform will continue to improve its ability to identify undesirable content and made calls to the public to report illicit content and users through the app's report channel.