Sudden death of a young employee leads to soul searching at Bilibili

Popular video-streaming and gaming website Bilibili said it's moving to offer better protection for workers' physical and mental health following the sudden death of a young employee last week.

The Shanghai-headquartered company apologized for improperly handling the sudden death of the employee during the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday.

The employee suffered from a brain hemorrhage at his home in Wuhan and passed away on February 4.

The holiday is usually a peak season for user-generated content on Bilibili, a time when many vloggers upload their latest work to share with viewers. This leads to higher pressure for content moderators of the site, industry insiders said.

Previous social media postings said the company had removed the overtime work attendance records of the deceased employee who was nicknamed "Twilight wood heart."

He was the acting team leader for the written and picture content moderation unit and was responsible for finalizing the work schedule for the eight-hour work shifts during the weeklong holiday, BiliBili said in its statement on Tuesday.

A family member posted on Twitter-like Weibo earlier this week that the company had refused to send a representative to express condolences to family members.

"We were in a state of chaos and confusion upon receiving the terrible news and we deeply apologize to his family members," the company said.

The tragedy is heightening awareness in the company of the need to provide better protection for content moderators' overall wellbeing, the statement added.

"It's not necessary to disclose too much private information about the deceased, and we all feel sorry for the loss of a young life," said one Weibo user called "Pinky Peach."

The company is adding 1,000 more content moderators to relieve work pressure and offering additional physical checkups for those responsible for content moderating.

It will also provide 24/7 health consultation services.