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  "docId": "019dd923-622c-750b-8b97-202fcba3bc0a",
  "docSlug": "4a1cd2416c13",
  "documentTitle": "Joyy Inc. (YY)",
  "authorId": "51_Muddy_Waters",
  "authorName": "Carson Block",
  "documentKindSlug": "research-note",
  "documentKindLabel": "Research note",
  "sourceTypeSlug": "short_seller",
  "sourceTypeLabel": "Short seller",
  "presentationDate": "2020-11-18 00:00:00",
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  "pageNumber": 14,
  "pageCount": 71,
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  "slideType": "expose_contradiction",
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  "density": "dense",
  "nDataPoints": 4,
  "notes": "The slide uses a screenshot of a live-streaming interface to prove that gifts were being sent to a channel that was not broadcasting.",
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      "kind": "callout",
      "text": "Brothers’ channel owner is YY itself. Therefore, there is little question of any interested third party being the force behind the fraud.",
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      "kind": "image",
      "text": "Screenshot of YY interface showing gifts being sent while off-air",
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      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "Brothers’ channel owner is YY itself. Therefore, there is little question of any interested third party being the force behind the fraud.",
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      "text": "In a particularly successful month, Modern Brothers ranked as the #97 top performer on YY and made RMB 2.9 million in gift income. However, it seems that YY employed FUs to generate this ranking. Data from XHL as well as the YY app itself show patterns suggestive of bots from July 2020 through September 2020. For example, on July 22nd and 23rd, 2020, Modern Brothers did not perform, yet the channel received RMB 2,631 from 15,286 PUs and RMB 4,007 from 22,427 PUs, respectively.",
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      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "We identified FUs in this sample based on their pattern of sending gifts to Modern Brothers regularly and repeatedly on days the group was off air. Some PUs giving gifts to Modern Brothers also displayed IP addresses connected to YY’s servers, which further indicates that they were YY-controlled bots.",
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      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "Although Modern Brothers’ normal broadcasting time is in the evening from 7-10 pm, the purple line shown in the XHL gift transaction records below indicates that FUs sent continuous streams of small gifts 24 hours a day, indicative of bot activity. The image from the XHL dashboard below displays data from July 22, 2020, a day that Modern Brothers was not performing on air.",
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      "kind": "source-note",
      "text": "Modern Brothers Gifts Flowing in While Dead-Air Streaming, Image from July 23, 2020",
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