{"id":447627,"date":"2026-05-27T11:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T11:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/447627\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T11:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T11:18:08","slug":"controversial-china-dead-or-alive-app-transforms-into-valuable-personal-safety-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/447627\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversial China \u2018dead or alive\u2019 app transforms into valuable personal safety tool"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A controversial Chinese app with the allegedly offensive name \u201cdead or alive\u201d has been transformed into a government-backed safety tool.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The app, called Sileme, or \u201cAre you dead?\u201d, went viral in January because of its straightforward name that challenged the traditional taboo notions about death.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Its function was extremely simple.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The sign-in app features a giant green button on the screen. A person only needs to touch the button every day to confirm their \u201calive\u201d status. If they fail to check in for two days in a row, it will send a message to the emergency contact person.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">It costs eight yuan (US$1.2) in the app store. Some people said it was not worth paying for.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The sileme app, pictured above, was originally sold bearing a name some people thought was offensive. Photo: Handout\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/771337f4-a514-4088-8faf-60df0f29ef07_a1224722.jpg\" title=\"The sileme app, pictured above, was originally sold bearing a name some people thought was offensive. Photo: Handout\"\/>The sileme app, pictured above, was originally sold bearing a name some people thought was offensive. Photo: Handout<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But young people liked it, finding it entertaining and meeting the needs of the country\u2019s increasing number of solo users.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A controversial Chinese app with the allegedly offensive name \u201cdead or alive\u201d has been transformed into a government-backed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[48339,10791,365,228142,2724,363,85,228141,7484,10703,1061,607,4444,1656,13575,10709,16579,10039,690,799,3419,501,24570,15453,15974,127731,2109,26663,1445,112547,64316,13313,266,2518,8870,228147,1345,29013,14607,3112,424,39084,23648,228145,6096,342,228144,5971,111,139,69,46611,1855,4056,8467,3109,1518,7192,6302,5419,13660,6358,228146,228143,9739,4499,59353,54919,62506,1037,44093,49962,88,106381,145,4327,6305,66557,54,1528,3040,5143,58294],"class_list":["post-447627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-accidental","tag-ageing","tag-ai","tag-alivce","tag-app","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-australia","tag-button","tag-cardiologist","tag-characters","tag-children","tag-china","tag-chinese","tag-company","tag-complicated","tag-concerns","tag-contact","tag-controversial","tag-dead","tag-dementia","tag-depression","tag-design","tag-developers","tag-elderly","tag-emergency","tag-entertaining","tag-family","tag-fired","tag-friends","tag-function","tag-geriatric","tag-giant","tag-government","tag-green","tag-hangzhou","tag-health-times","tag-home","tag-insecurity","tag-isolation","tag-job","tag-life","tag-location","tag-loneliness","tag-lu","tag-message","tag-mobile","tag-nanxing","tag-need","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-offensive","tag-original","tag-person","tag-population","tag-public","tag-research","tag-risk","tag-safety","tag-screen","tag-sharing","tag-shenzhen","tag-sileme","tag-simplified","tag-singapore","tag-small","tag-solo","tag-sos","tag-stalked","tag-startup","tag-status","tag-suffer","tag-surprise","tag-taboo","tag-technology","tag-thailand","tag-tool","tag-touch","tag-trial","tag-university","tag-us","tag-viral","tag-zhejiang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}