WEIBO Corp., which operates a Chinese social media platform akin to Twitter, has fired a senior executive over allegations that he took bribes. The U.S.-listed company has fired Mao Taotao, director of public relations (PR) at Weibo, and will not rehire him again, according to an internal notice seen yesterday. Mao joined Weibo in 2010 and quickly rose through the ranks of the firm’s marketing and PR department. Weibo, which was spun off from Sina Corp. and counts Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. as one of its backers, is currently cooperating with police investigators over the matter, according to the notice. “As a longtime employee of the company and head of an important department, he failed to act as role model and fell to temptation, which fills us with pain and regret,” Weibo said in the notice. “The case once again demonstrates the company’s ‘zero-tolerance’ toward fraudulent behavior and should be a warning to everyone to abide by the law and the group’s rules.” The bribery allegations aren’t the first time Weibo has been mired in scandal. In 2020, posts on the Chinese microblogging site over a controversy involving Alibaba executive Jiang Fan were scrubbed, drawing the ire of government officials over the ability of the e-commerce giant to influence public opinion. Chinese tech companies have doubled down on corruption investigations in recent years as their valuations and profiles have soared following a tech boom. Earlier this year, a former vice president of Kuaishou was arrested for alleged corruption, while Tencent Holdings said one of its company executives was being investigated by authorities over allegations of personal corruption. (SD-Agencies) | 