“The wet markets in Laos are like wildlife parks; however, while you can only look at the animals in our zoos back in China, the wild animals in Lao markets can be eaten.” So proclaimed a Chinese vlogger as he toured a wildlife market. As he explored, he filmed himself showing off bear paws, various […]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/61236483

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  • Using simple keyword searches on Chinese social media, Mongabay found hundreds of videos promoting the sale of endangered wildlife in Laos. Two major Chinese media companies have user agreements specifically barring the posting of content related to the illegal wildlife trade; a third does not have specific terms.
  • Group tours leading Chinese tourists to wildlife markets in Laos are part of a recent boom in visitors following the opening of the China-Laos Railway and the lifting in pandemic travel restrictions.
  • Experts say that Chinese media companies, and their counterparts in the West, must do more to keep their platforms free of content promoting the illegal wildlife trade.
  • Warning: This story contains disturbing images of animals.

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“The wet markets in Laos are like wildlife parks; however, while you can only look at the animals in our zoos back in China, the wild animals in Lao markets can be eaten.”

So proclaimed a Chinese vlogger as he toured a wildlife market. As he explored, he filmed himself showing off bear paws, various birds, dried rats, monitor lizards, and a live pangolin in his hands.

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With the opening of the China-Laos Railway in 2021 and the lifting of China’s pandemic lockdowns in early 2023, Laos has become a top choice for Chinese tourists traveling abroad. According to the official Lao News Agency, nearly 1.16 million Chinese tourists arrived in the country in 2025.

The booming tourism has contributed to large-scale wildlife trafficking issues in Laos. In turn, Chinese social media has become a hotbed of promotions for illegal wildlife tours in Laos.

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Global social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp have been widely criticized for failing to effectively crack down on the use of their platforms for wildlife trafficking. In the United States, where Facebook and WhatsApp’s parent company Meta is headquartered, laws shield media companies from liability for content posted by users, largely leaving the industry to regulate itself.

Chinese media companies are well known for their ability to carry out highly efficient censorship of certain topics: politics, pornography, disinformation, among others. Censorship mechanisms vary among Chinese Internet companies, but generally rely on tight human-AI collaborations to decide what content is allowed to be published.

China’s Wildlife Protection Law prohibits publishing advertisements for the sale of wild animals or illegal wild animal products, and notes specifically that online platforms are prohibited from providing services for such sales. However, the law does not specifically address the question of social media users filming illegal wildlife content.

The two major Chinese social media companies — Tencent, which owns WeChat, and ByteDance, which owns Douyin and is the original owner of TikTok — do specifically prohibit users of their platforms from posting content promoting the illegal wildlife trade. Another social media company widely used in China, Xiaohongshu, does not have similar provisions in its community guidelines.

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