Xinhua News Agency, Tianjin, December 9th. Question: The amount is getting higher and higher, and there are more and more disputes...How to manage the live rewards?
Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters Bai Jiali and Liu Weizhen
Not long ago, the 33-year-old Internet celebrity anchor "Female Security Guard in North Henan" Zhao Fengfeng was unfortunately killed. The suspect is her "fan" and she has given her a lot of rewards.
"Online refreshing is cool, offline repentance." In recent years, with the rise of webcasting, some anchors have made a lot of money from rewards, but various disputes surrounding live rewards are also increasing.
Increasing amounts and increasing disputes
"Guardian anchor will give her a'hot air balloon'" "Family leave your'careful'"... Entering the live broadcast room, the audience buys virtual currency through the live broadcast platform, and then exchanges it into a virtual gift to give to the anchor.
Relying on the rewards, many anchors have bulged their wallets.
In the upsurge of webcasting, rewarding and bringing goods are the main sources of income for anchors.
Compared with bringing goods, relying on viewers to make gifts and "list one" (the one who rewards the anchor the most) spends a lot of money, the cost is lower, and the money comes faster, so it is more favored by most anchors.
A person in charge of an online video company confessed to reporters that in the past two years, the most disputes in the live broadcast business have been rewarding. Among them, not only users sued the anchor, but also the spouse and parents of the user sued the anchor. "Moreover, the reasons for such disputes It's complicated, and it's more difficult to deal with."
The reporter recently retrieved 1,299 documents on the China Judgment Documents Network, using "live" and "reward" as keywords.
Among them, there were only 33 in 2017 and before, and the number of disputes increased rapidly from 2019 to 2020, 270 in 2019, and 551 in 2020.
It is worth noting that in recent years, live broadcast rewards have been lavishly spent, and there have been frequent cases of high-stakes rewarding anchors.
Ms. Hu, who has been an anchor on multiple live broadcast platforms, told reporters, “It’s normal for users to give tens of thousands of yuan at a time.” Previously, a “post-90s” cashier even misappropriated 48.26 million yuan of public funds and rewarded more than 2,000 anchors in more than a year. Ten thousand yuan.
In September this year, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the "Administrative Measures for Online Performance Brokerage Institutions" stipulating that online performers shall not induce users to consume by means of language stimulation, unreasonable special treatment, and promised rebates.
However, reporters watched live broadcasts on multiple platforms and found that it was common for anchors to ask for rewards straightforwardly. Some anchors indicated that they would show their talents after a certain amount of rewards. Some anchors indicated that they could add WeChat friends by sending a "hot air balloon".
According to industry insiders, “language stimulation” is difficult to characterize in practice.
In order to induce rewards, some anchors "pattern routines" frequently appeared.
Recently, the Jiading Branch of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau smashed three criminal gangs that used female anchors to lure men into the live broadcast platform to create a so-called "reward PK" atmosphere to defraud money.
"Like the rewarding'atmosphere group' in the live broadcast room is one of the live broadcast routines. It is easy to create an environment for competing for rewards and satisfy the comparability and vanity of the rewarders." The interviewed expert said.
Some anchors also often use various routines to induce "fans" to give rewards, such as concealing their marital status, creating "single" personalities, rewarding a certain amount of rewards to "fans" with different titles, fake "fans" making gifts to deceive others to follow suit Reward etc.
Issues such as minor rewards, "private giving and receiving", and tax evasion are highlighted
Among the many live-streaming rewarding disputes, minors’ rewarding and down-broadcasting "private giving and receiving" issues are particularly worthy of attention.
The reporter searched for "live rewarding" on the black cat complaint platform and found that 12 of the first 20 disputes were related to minor rewards.
Although the State Administration of Radio and Television "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Online Show Live Broadcasts and E-commerce Live Broadcasts" stipulates that users who have not registered with the real-name system cannot give rewards, and minor users cannot give rewards, but the reporter found that there are still many minors bypassing it. "Youth Mode" rewards the host.
A parent told reporters that recently his 7-year-old child played a mobile phone to give the anchor a gift, recharged 15,128 yuan on a certain platform, and the anchor had induced recharge behavior.
After the parent reported to the platform by phone, "The customer service agreed to refund at first, but later found various reasons for not refunding, saying that it could not be proved that it was a minor's consumption."
Downstreaming "private communication" is also a "grey area" of supervision.
The reporter's research found that during the live broadcast, some anchors would express or imply that "WeChat can be added to the top 10 list."
A staff member of an online video company told reporters that “emotional hints” and “swiping the ball” are common ways to attract rewards in live broadcast rooms, and adding WeChat is also an important means of stimulating rewards.
After adding WeChat, user behavior is difficult to supervise, and it is easy to cause criminal problems such as pornographic cases, economic fraud, or personal injury.
In addition, there may also be tax evasion problems with live broadcast rewards.
Several interviewed experts pointed out that there are still some gaps in the tax declaration and supervision system for new types of online income such as live streaming.
“For offline or online shopping, we can ask merchants to issue invoices. However, when spending in games or rewarding anchors on live broadcast platforms, we often encounter situations where it is difficult to issue invoices." said Cong Yi, a professor at Tianjin University of Finance and Economics. The gaps in the tax declaration and supervision system of online income may not only cause losses to consumers, but may also generate risks such as money laundering.
Promote the implementation of the cooling-off period for live broadcast rewards, and urge platforms to standardize rewarding behaviors
In August this year, the 48th "Statistical Report on China's Internet Development Status" released by the China Internet Network Information Center showed that as of June 2021, the number of live webcast users in my country reached 638 million, accounting for 63.1% of the total Internet users.
The live broadcast economy is booming, and it is imperative to create a clear and bright operating space.
Industry insiders suggest that the cooling-off period for live broadcast rewards should be put in place.
As early as February of this year, the National Internet Information Office and other seven departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Standardized Management of Webcasting", requiring the setting of a cooling-off period for rewards and a delayed payment period when necessary.
Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, and others pointed out that there are still gaps in the implementation of the live broadcast reward cooling-off period. “Setting a cooling-off period can prevent irrational rewards and help better protect consumer rights.
Secondly, the relevant departments should further strengthen the supervision of the live broadcast platform, and urge the platform to regulate the upper limit of rewards and the time of receipt.
At present, the upper limit of a single user's reward for a single article on the WeChat public account is 256 yuan, and the settlement can be made after 7 days, and there is also a limit for WeChat red envelopes.
Experts such as Cong Yi suggested that the live broadcast platform can learn from some practices of the WeChat platform, set a limit for the live broadcast reward, and delay the receipt, or require users who transfer large amounts of money to make a separate declaration to protect the rights and interests of consumers , To prevent network fraud and other situations.
Li Chuanwen, executive director of Beijing Okun Law Firm, reminded that network anchors must strengthen the concept of the rule of law and cannot make up personal information in order to attract "fans" to give tips.
Adult viewers should also consume rationally and give rewards rationally. Generally, they cannot request refunds of rewards provided that the anchor and the platform do not violate relevant laws and regulations.