Alibaba fires 10 employees for leaking details of sexual assault allegations

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has reportedly fired ten employees for spreading an employee's account of sexual assault claims against a former manager, as the e-commerce firm works to resolve a case that has shaken China's tech community.

Alibaba suspended the group last week for leaking internal information after a co-worker posted a horrific narrative on its internal platform accusing a former manager of sexual harassment.

According to Bloomberg, people who asked not to be identified because they were discussing an internal problem, said their violations included posting screenshots of the woman's post in the public domain after erasing watermarks that showed their IDs.

They also said that three other people had been punished for making disrespectful comments in public forums.

The internal platform, accessible to all 250,000 employees as well as many at fintech company Ant Group, is considered off-limits and people have reportedly been fired in the past for information leaks. Alibaba reportedly had no choice except to terminate them because the ten employees had broken its rigorous content policy.

Daniel Zhang, the company's CEO, has admitted that his company's treatment of the complaint was a "humiliation."

This month, the woman's story went viral, bringing one of China's largest companies to the centre of the debate around alleged widespread abuse in Chinese enterprises.

After the case generated a sexist debate in corporate circles, Alibaba fired the accused manager and accepted the resignations of two top executives.

Jinan Hualian was arrested for the first time in the case last week, and ex-manager Wang is still being investigated. The conclusions of the internal probe have not been made public by the firm.

After completing an internal investigation in recent weeks, Alibaba decided to dismiss the ten employees. The Alibaba incident earlier this month brought to light claims that Chinese women are disregarded, objectified, or compelled to participate in male-dominated rituals such as drinking with clients, and that when they report mistreatment, they are dismissed.

It comes at a time when the government is focusing its attention on concerns ranging from unfair and exploitative behaviour to the mistreatment of lower-wage workers.

After two weeks of protesting directly to managers and human resources, the woman posted her lengthy narrative internally, saying she had made no progress, resulting in a dinner-time protest at one of Alibaba's staff cafeterias.

After her dissent was captured on camera and viewed millions of times online, the firm began an investigation into the matter. Alibaba's head of human resources was publicly attacked, a helpline for sexual harassment complaints was opened, and a high-level committee was formed to settle future conflicts.