A popular social media platform on aesthetic medicine in Mainland China has allegedly promoted medical treatments involving prohibited substances and faked user reviews and ratings, according to a report in local media.
The aesthetic medicine platform “New Oxygen”, launched by So-Young International in 2013, enables users to find and read about various medical and aesthetic services from registered agencies or private enterprises.
According to The Beijing News report, recapped by the Paper, the platform allegedly featured registered enterprises which offered prohibited medical procedures and substances which had not been approved by the Chinese government.
One of the outlets was Kairunting Hospital, in Beijing, which featured botulinum toxin injection for reducing facial wrinkles, using Medytox’ Meditoxin or Hugel’s Botulax from South Korea – neither of which are approved in China.
At present, China’s General Administration of Market Supervision and Administration has only approved botulinum toxin, a domestic product produced by Lanzhou Institute of Biological Products under the trade name of Hengli, and imported products by BOTOX.
The alleged private beauty hospital and its services were reportedly removed from the New Oxygen app, said the So-Young International, as Kairunting allegedly violated the terms and conditions of the platform.
As for accusations that the New Oxygen app was filled with fake user reviews and ratings, a spokesperson from the So-Young International said it is investigating alleged users and has banned the content and materials.
The company said the New Oxygen app would soon support face recognition technology to cross validate a user’s face and the account information, as well as the identification of speakers in video blog entries, to improve the platform’s credibility.