The Weibo account of Chinese e-commerce startup Xiaohongshu has been suspended since June 4, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The account, which had 14 million followers, shared a post “Tell me loudly, what is the date today?” on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The post was promptly deleted by the platform and the account was suspended.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal reported that the Shanghai-based company, backed by Tencent and the Alibaba Group, is working with Chinese internet regulators to conduct an internal investigation.

A search for the account now yields a message that it was unavailable for suspected violations of laws and regulations. Both the Cyberspace Administration of China and Xiaohongshu did not respond to requests for comments.

Xiaohongshu’s mobile apps on both the Android and iOS system have not been affected. The company made marketing posts on Fridays throughout the month in celebration of the weekends. It is unsure at the moment if the post was related to the historical incident.

Xiaohongshu, which means “Little Red Book” in Chinese, has been targeted by Chinese internet regulators in 2019 for content that allegedly violated regulations. Though the specific content was not disclosed, observers estimate it was due to data fraud, illegal sale of cigarettes and users’ ostentatious display of wealth. It was pulled from the app stores for more than two months.

The probe could complicate plans for an initial public offering, which may value the company at more than US$10 billion, the Journal reported.

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