TikTok was fined for spreading obscene, pornographic and vulgar information

Sound the alarm for live broadcast chaos

  On January 8, the National Anti-vice and Anti-illegal Affairs Office notified: Recently, according to clues reported by the masses, the Beijing Municipality Anti-vice and Anti-illegal Affairs Office instructed the Beijing Municipal Cultural Market Comprehensive Law Enforcement Corps to interview the Douyin platform and spread obscene, pornographic and vulgar information. The behavior is subject to administrative penalties of top fines.

  The person in charge of the National Office of Anti-Pornography and Anti-illegal Affairs pointed out that the strengthening of content supervision on large Internet companies is to promote a more healthy development on the track of the rule of law, which is conducive to standardizing the order of online communication and building an environment of healthy competition.

Regulatory authorities should sound the alarm for security management in a timely manner to remind Internet companies that they must not forget their main responsibility for content security.

The web live broadcast platform exposed pan-entertainment, messy content, false marketing and other chaos. 77.1% of netizens believe that the live broadcast platform has vulgar content

  "I can't show my face, I need to subscribe to over 100,000 to show it." On July 25, 2019, Douyu anchor "His Royal Highness Qiao Biluo" "accidentally" happened during Lianmai's live broadcast of "Lolita Becoming Auntie" "Rollover Incident" , The picture that I usually used to hide the face is gone.

Afterwards, even though a male fan who spent 100,000 yuan to buy gifts cancelled his account, Qiao Biluo harvested a large wave of traffic in the topic spreading and fermentation, and the number of fans skyrocketed.

  This farce is thought-provoking.

Qiao Biluo was originally an ordinary female game anchor. After some hype, her popularity far surpassed previous accumulation.

After investigation and verification by the platform, the incident was independently planned and deliberately speculated at a cost of 280,000 yuan.

The Network Performance (Live) Branch of the China Performance Industry Association will include it on the anchor blacklist for a five-year ban.

  No ID card or even any information is needed, and a mobile phone can be used for webcasting.

Low-threshold webcasting makes it possible for ordinary people to quickly become popular, but the emergence of many problems on the live broadcast platform makes it a target of public criticism.

  Known as the branded bird's nest, it is actually a flavored syrup.

It is such a counterfeit product, but 57,820 orders were sold in the live broadcast room, with a sales amount of more than 15 million yuan.

On December 23, 2020, the Guangzhou Municipal Market Supervision Administration of Guangdong Province fined 900,000 yuan for the company of the well-known anchor Simba and 2 million yuan for the sales company.

  Live broadcast chaos does not stop at network marketing.

During the epidemic, Huya launched the "Learning Together" column, and its online lesson video contained a large number of game advertisements underneath, which can directly jump to the game page.

Douyu also has eye-catching game advertisements in the education sector.

  On June 10, 2020, the local Cyberspace Administration of China conducted an interview in accordance with the law to dispose of 10 online live broadcast platforms such as Huya and Douyu. It directly pointed out that some game and show live broadcast platforms had vulgar content and used online courses to promote online games. Relevant platforms are required to take measures such as suspending major channel content updates, suspending new user registration, rectifying within a time limit, and instructing the platform to deal with relevant responsible persons, and including some illegal network anchors into the cross-platform banned blacklist.

  The relevant person in charge of the State Cyberspace Administration of China said that 31 major domestic web live broadcast platforms generally have poor content ecology, including pornographic and vulgar content, online gambling and other chaos.

At the same time, some platform message interactions, bullet screens, and user account registrations were neglected to manage, and illegal information emerged endlessly.

  Some live broadcast platforms took advantage of the increased time spent online by netizens during the epidemic to attract users to give high rewards through vulgar performances and even induce minors to recharge and reward.

The Chaoyang Court in Beijing once disclosed that minors were rewarded more than 7,000 yuan a month, and even worse, more than 650,000 yuan was rewarded within a year.

  "At the moment, some live webcast platforms have exposed pan-entertainment, messy content, false marketing, and low live broadcast thresholds," said Zhang Min, an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of Sias International College, Zhengzhou University.

  According to a survey conducted by iiMedia Consulting, Chinese netizens generally have a low evaluation of the content of online live broadcast platforms. 77.1% of netizens believe that live broadcast platforms have vulgar content, and 90.2% of netizens believe that the overall value orientation of live broadcast platforms is fair or low.

Low barriers to entry, fast flow realization, high supervision costs, breeding all kinds of chaos

  All sorts of live webcast chaos are harmful.

In terms of content, some live broadcast platforms lack effective supervision of content for profit-seeking purposes, making some unsuitable content public and destroying a healthy network environment.

From the perspective of the relationship between the anchor and the audience, in order to complete the platform assignment tasks, some anchors are digging their heads to cater to the audience's taste. The reward mechanism encourages them to do their best to encourage fans to "sweep gifts", and many audiences pay a lot of money.

Some webcasts show bad content such as vulgar and spoofs, and some audiences are obsessed with this and cannot extricate themselves, especially for teenagers who are in the stage of value formation and lack discrimination.

  "Traffic is king, of course, making short videos value traffic most! What fans like to watch is the direction of your content production." Short video expert "Tooth Fairy Is Working Hard", who sells daily life as a selling point, told reporters.

  Only when there is traffic, there is income.

On live broadcast or short video platforms, creators can realize multi-dimensional monetization through information, advertising, fan rewards, payment, and e-commerce operations.

"The Rabbit Tooth Fairy is working hard" said that the opportunity for him to become a short video expert was that a casually shot short video accidentally appeared on the system recommendation page and attracted the first batch of fans.

"After one month's rewards are settled, it is more than 5,000 yuan."

  This of course has to be based on traffic.

"Even if a video is rich in content and made with great care, if there is no audience, it is all in vain. In order to make quick money, some creators will use spoofing, ugly, and grandstanding methods to attract attention, and there are many people who will play the side ball. "

  The tempo of the short video is extremely fast. In just 15 seconds, if the first 3 seconds are not attractive enough, the user may swipe away.

The same goes for live broadcasts.

With so many people streaming live at the same time, how do you let everyone see yourself?

Compared with ordinary singing and dancing talents, content such as spoof, vulgarity, and hype seems to be easier to attract fans. Therefore, some creators strive to bring strong sensory stimulation, just to let people stay for a few more seconds.

  “As a product of network culture, short videos are compatible with two characteristics of fragmented reception situations and sensory content forms, and cater to the audience’s needs to fill their leisure time or obtain sensory stimulation.” Chang Jiang, a professor at the School of Communication of Shenzhen University, believes that some The pursuit of sensory impact by users has fostered the spread of vulgar content to a certain extent.

  "Vulgar videos and vulgar live broadcasts are definitely illegal. Once a user reports a report, the platform will be banned, but there are many people who are blocked and changed to continue." An internet celebrity agent said in an interview, in order to attract creators , Short video and live broadcast platforms hardly set thresholds for user registration. The "monetization legend" of "a mobile phone + an account, ordinary people can also make a monthly income of over 10,000" has attracted a large number of "gold diggers".

In addition, some "net celebrity organizations" hold multiple platform accounts to reduce the cost of being blocked.

  Driven by capital, some video platforms aim at the profit model of "traffic is revenue", lower content review requirements, and even secretly encourage vulgar content.

During the user's browsing, which videos are mostly attracted to their attention, how long they stay, and which content they like or comment on, will be recorded by the platform system algorithm.

In order to "put what it likes", the algorithm will push as many works of the same type to users as possible.

E-commerce live streaming has become the fastest growing Internet application, but the consumer experience needs to be improved

  Live broadcast is an infinitely vast market, and it is still expanding rapidly.

  According to the "2020 China Internet Audiovisual Development Research Report" issued by the China Internet Audiovisual Program Service Association, as of June 2020, China has more than 800 million short video users and 562 million online live broadcast users.

In 2019, the short video market reached 130.24 billion yuan, and the webcast reached 84.34 billion yuan, ranking first and third in the online audiovisual industry.

  In just a few years, short video has become the second largest network application after instant messaging. On average, Chinese users spend 110 minutes on short video applications every day, and 60.4% of users watch short videos every day.

Compared with comprehensive video (web TV series, movies, variety shows), web live broadcast, web audio, etc., short video is the audio-visual field with the fastest growth rate and the largest proportion.

  Short videos quickly achieved market expansion, behind which is the massive acquisition of users by short video apps such as Douyin and Kuaishou.

According to the latest official data, Douyin’s daily active users have exceeded 600 million in August 2020. As of December, the average daily video search volume has exceeded 400 million, and Kuaishou’s daily active users have exceeded 300 million.

  The industry generally believes that short videos and webcasts will become the main increments of the online audiovisual industry.

Compared with traditional live broadcast platforms, short video platforms have largely diverted their live broadcast audiences and have become the most frequently used web live broadcast platforms for users. Kuaishou, Douyin, Huya, and Douyu are among them.

  The fastest growing Internet application in 2020 is non-e-commerce live streaming.

According to the "Report", the number of e-commerce live broadcast users reached 309 million, accounting for 32.9% of the total netizens.

However, the consumer experience in the live broadcast room still needs to be improved, and the product satisfaction rate of live shopping is only 51.5%.

  The laws of any country do not allow the use of scandals and evils as network traffic and selling points.

Especially large-scale Internet platforms have a huge number of users and hundreds of millions of users, many of whom are young people.

If the live broadcast platform spreads a lot of content about pornography, violence, crime, and negative decadence, it will inevitably produce unpredictable negative effects.

  "Internet companies must stress development and responsibility," said Qi Shuyu, a professor at the Department of Culture and History of the Central Party School (National School of Administration).

How to effectively strengthen the supervision of webcasting is a common problem faced by the international community. The implementation of platform responsibilities and the protection of minors are the key points

  On April 16, 2017, 37-year-old Steve Stephens from Ohio, USA, because of a conflict with his ex-girlfriend, randomly shot and killed an elderly man in his seventies and broadcasted it live on Facebook.

The "Live Murder" incident has pushed Facebook to the forefront of public opinion.

Since then, Facebook began to block bad videos through machines, automated software, and human real-time monitoring.

  According to Wei Hongyan, a member of the Internet Information Professional Committee of the Hangzhou Lawyers Association and a partner of Zhejiang Fadou Law Firm, different from the domestically issued specifications for webcasting, the supervision of webcasting in the United States is based on the comprehensive supervision of past precedents and statutory laws. One is to protect minors. It is strictly forbidden to spread pornographic and obscene information to minors, and it is forbidden to spread child pornography.

  The web live broadcast industry is also an emerging industry in South Korea. Games and "eating shows" are popular forms of live broadcast by Korean netizens, but the live broadcast industry practitioners are also subject to many constraints.

  According to Wei Hongyan, according to South Korea's "Promotion of Use of Information and Communication Networks and Information Protection Association Act" and "Personal Information Protection Act", Internet users are prohibited from disseminating illegal information.

For live broadcast websites, if they do not actively block Internet articles and video materials related to obscenity, illegality, and suspected defamation of others’ reputations, they will bear legal responsibility and be fined up to 30 million won.

  In the supervision of live webcasts in the European Union, the protection of minors and the supervision of website content are both implemented.

The EU requires webcasting platforms to shoulder the responsibility of strengthening content security review and reporting online public opinion.

In May 2016, the European Union issued the "Audiovisual Media Services Directive" to strengthen the awareness of the responsibility of video sharing platforms: platforms that provide videos and category annotations must protect minors from harmful content and protect all citizens from Incitement and hatred.

The European Commission announced the Digital Services Act on December 15, 2020. Online platforms with more than 45 million users (equivalent to 10% of the EU's total population) are obliged to actively review, process and promptly delete false information, terrorism, hate speech, etc. For illegal content, check whether the platform has dangerous or fake third-party products, and disclose the algorithm parameters of advertiser information and ranking information. Violators will be fined up to 6% of their annual turnover.

  "Although the supervision of webcasting has its own focus, focusing on the main responsibility of Internet companies and the protection of minors is the focus of live broadcast supervision in many countries." Wei Hongyan said.

Maintain the order of the Internet cultural market and strengthen the supervision of the content of live webcasts

  Webcasting is essentially information dissemination, and like other Internet services, it has the characteristics of fast dissemination and wide influence.

It is imperative to strengthen the supervision of Internet live broadcast services, especially content supervision.

  At present, the supervision of my country's webcast industry involves multiple competent departments including cyberspace, broadcasting, and culture.

In 2016, the State Cyberspace Administration of China, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, and the Ministry of Culture respectively issued the "Regulations on the Administration of Internet Live Broadcasting Services", "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Online Audiovisual Program Live Service Management", and "Administrative Measures on Network Performance Business Activities". The live broadcast industry is regulated.

In recent years, the national "anti-pornography and anti-illegal" office has launched a heavy attack through special actions such as "net cleaning". Many leading Internet companies have been interviewed for rectification, which has sent a signal of strict supervision to the entire industry.

  "Due to the real-time nature of live webcasts and short videos, its supervision focuses on process supervision and platform coordination, and the platform replaces the government to assume part of the responsibility of content supervision." said Yang Chuanzhang, a researcher at the Media Research Institute of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences. The first is to conduct identity authentication, that is, "back-end real-name, front-end voluntary", so that the content can be traced; second is the real-time reporting and instant blocking mechanism, equipped with supervisors to inspect the live broadcast room for 24 hours; third is the credit rating management system and blacklist System, for the Internet live broadcast users who enter the blacklist, it is forbidden to register for an account again; the fourth is the content review system, which is equipped with dedicated content reviewers to review the content of the upload platform.

  "Pre-approval is not compatible with the characteristics of Internet cultural products with high timeliness and fast update speed, while interruption and punishment after the event are more in line with the characteristics of Internet cultural products." Qi Shuyu believes that the blacklist system and credit system can also be used System, whistleblowing system and other penalties after the event, increase penalties and enterprise trial and error costs, and maintain the order of the Internet culture market.

  "Anyone can use the live broadcast platform to carry goods, and any goods can be sold live, which leads to malignant low-price drainage, false propaganda, fake and inferior goods in the process of carrying goods." In response to the chaos in the live marketing industry, Yang Chuanzhang It is believed that the key to governance lies in setting up the threshold of “carrying goods”, imposing penalties for violations of the live broadcast platform, rectification measures within a time limit, setting up strict admission review and expulsion penalties for live broadcast personnel, and establishing strict filtering and screening standards and traceability for live broadcast products mechanism.

  "As a platform operator, we don't want to be considered a'vulgar porter'." A well-known short video platform product manager told reporters that if the cost is low, the homogeneity is serious, the orientation is not normal, there is no nutrition or simply induce consumption The content flooding the platform will directly lead to the loss of users.

"High-quality content creators are the key to increasing user stickiness. Momentary stimulation to attract traffic is not conducive to the long-term development of the platform." (Reporter Guan Xiaopu, Han Yadong, Li Yunshu)