Blogger apologizes for video that took internet by storm

A popular female blogger has apologized for stirring up an online buzz about a primary school student getting his workbooks lost in Paris during the Spring Festival holiday.

In her video posted on Feb 16, she said a waiter at a restaurant in Paris handed her two holiday workbooks left in the toilet. The workbooks had the owner's name, Qin Lang, class 8 of first grade. She said she would bring the workbooks back to the owner.

Every school season, holiday homework becomes a worry for many children. Some children with a lot of tricks may find a variety of excuses to free themselves from homework. The loss is a perfect excuse.

The 1 minute 37 seconds long video created a buzz and sparked an online search for Qin. In the comment section, a netizen with IP display in Jiangsu claimed himself as Qin's uncle and that the boy studies in Xichang primary school.

This comment has up to 220,000 likes. The netizen also published a video showing him buying the workbooks. However, the video was banned soon for violating community rules.

Several media outlets did further research on the student's name, grade level and school. But they found the authenticity of the video to be in doubt. Some people suspected that it was just an attention grab.

The blogger - online name Thurman Maoyibei, who has more than 10 million followers - said in her video posted on Monday that the student Qin Lang was not from Xichang primary school and she had contacted his mother.

In the video posted on Monday, Thurman Maoyibei said that she did not publish accurate school information in the former video due to privacy concerns, and that the incident had been "successfully concluded".

She confirmed in the video that the case was real, not an attempt to gain views, and she could not provide the name of the school because of privacy.

A lawyer claimed that if it was a video simply seeking attention, the maker may be penalized accordingly under the Law on Penalties for Administration of Public Security for disturbing public order.