Asian Tech Press (Nov 15) -- News aggregator Toutiao, owned by Chinese short-video giant ByteDance Ltd., announced Monday that it had permanently blocked a user's account for faking news of Wanda founder Wang Jianlin's death.

On Sunday evening, a Toutiao user fabricated news of the death of a well-known businessperson Wang Jianlin, founder of commercial real estate Dalian Wanda Group Co. Ltd. And 41 minutes later, Toutiao's content quality specialists found and took down the rumor.

Toutiao said it was verified that the content in question had been shown 56 times and read 13 times by the time the platform was removed.

Wanda also released news this morning saying that on November 15, Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin hosted a meeting to promote the innovation work of the Group.

Sources from Wanda told media outlets that Wang Jianlin is "in good health" and has been working intensely in recent years and giving weekly classes to all employees.

Wang Jianlin, aged 67, was born in 1954. Since this year, Wanda is seeking to list its light asset company Wanda Light Asset Commercial Management Co.

Wanda's light asset unit has filed IPO materials to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is seeking to go public. Some analysts believe that the rumor may be a malicious attempt to prevent the listing of Wanda's subsidiary.