[7] Because of the popularity of microblogs in China, people started to pay attention; the number of hits to the Civil Supervision blog dramatically increased, reaching more than 20 million.
This phenomenon drew the attention of other media, and they began to interview Lei, who commented that the “promiscuous video is deceitful”.
On November 23, the press office of the Chongqing municipal government issued a microblog stating that the Chongqing Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection, in charge of enforcing party discipline, had taken note of the content of the video and was verifying its authenticity.
On November 23, an official at the press office made an announcement on microblog, saying that the government had verified that the male shown in the video was Lei himself, who will be removed from his position.
[5] Overall, from the release of the screenshot on the Civil Supervision Website to the final decision of removing of Lei Zhengfu from his official position took only 63 hours.
Lei was sentenced to 13 years in jail for taking more than 3.1 million yuan ($500,000) in bribes, and was incarcerated at Jiulong Prison of Chongqing until his release on January 25, 2024.