China Targets Extreme Internet Fandoms in a New Crackdown

Youth with You was a popular streaming show in China, in which clean-cut young men sang and danced, guided by established pop star mentors, as they competed to form a new boy band. To vote for a contestant in the latest season this past spring, viewers needed to scan a QR code on the bottle from a particular brand of milk and yogurt. Superfans did just that, buying millions of dollars of dairy.