"I still can't figure out why I was diagnosed with liver cancer." Recently, an Internet celebrity blogger posted a 7 minutes and 52 seconds video on social platforms, saying that he was only 25 years old and was diagnosed with liver cancer. In the video, he detailed information such as "liver cancer was detected during physical examination" and "the doctor told me that the chance of cure is not large". As soon as the video was released, related topics quickly rushed to the hot search list.

However, just as everyone expressed regret and care, encouraging him to "treat it well", things reversed - some netizens noticed a picture flashing at the end of the video, and the subtitles showed that "the content of this video is pure fiction". This made many netizens extremely angry, directly denouncing it as having no bottom line in traffic, and some netizens said, "Do you know how I see the last mood as a patient who has had cancer"?

Eventually, the influencer blogger apologized. At present, the blogger has been punished for violating the platform community convention, and the account has been given a stage ban, a ban on being followed, and a suspension of advertising revenue.

On the online platform, how many people sell miserable traffic like the above-mentioned Internet celebrity bloggers? How to rectify the behavior of unscrupulous drainage? The reporter conducted an investigative interview for this purpose.

□ reporter Han Dandong

□ Intern Wang Yitian

"From sympathy to anger, it's like riding an emotional roller coaster." A netizen commented on the fact that "an Internet celebrity blogger posted a video claiming to be diagnosed with liver cancer". For the explanation of the Internet celebrity's apology that "my original intention in doing this issue is to attract everyone's attention to their own bodies", many netizens expressed their unacceptability, saying that there was no need to find some high-sounding reasons.

"It's just to drain the flow." An industry insider engaged in the incubation of Internet celebrities recently said in an interview with a reporter from "Rule of Law Daily" that if it is really for the purpose of prompting physical health, it should be made clear at the beginning, but the Internet celebrity blogger chose to mention "the content of this issue of the video is pure fiction" at the end of the video, and the text did not explain it.

The industry insider told reporters that in reality, some online anchors and bloggers use the sympathy and empathy of netizens to quickly attract fans and then monetize. There are even some institutions that specialize in incubating such "personalized" Internet celebrities, and then make profits by receiving advertisements, setting up commodity purchase links, and live streaming after quickly attracting traffic.

In fact, from the perspective of the effect, the above-mentioned Internet celebrity blogger's miserable video has indeed achieved the purpose of drainage. From the release of the miserable video to the ban on the account, in just one day, the blogger has more than 550.2000 million fans, and the number of related videos has exceeded 300 million, and the highest number of views of his previous videos is more than <> million.

A number of interviewed experts said that behaviors such as selling misery to attract traffic, consumer sympathy, and taking advantage of hardship to increase fans are emerging in an endless stream on online platforms, and fabricated "personalities" for selling misery cannot withstand the test, which is contrary to social order and good customs, and also violates relevant laws and network norms.

First, the auction was miserable

Then live broadcast to bring goods for profit

"Four years of entrepreneurial failure, tomorrow to cancel the company, millions of wasted" "Suddenly encountered a family change, I suffered from cancer again, and now I am in debt" "Please help me, I just turned 20 years old, I was diagnosed with cancer" "Both parents died when I was a child, and I dropped out of school at the age of 14 to work"...

The reporter noticed that at present, in the major short video platforms, there are still many anchors, bloggers facing the camera to describe their suffering, some people are dressed in rags, some people are sweating with manual work, and some people cry bitterly, these short videos can often arouse the sympathy of a large number of netizens, the number of clicks is very high, and the number of fans of anchors and bloggers is also growing rapidly.

For example, a blogger on a certain platform, his previous works were mainly videos of major talent markets and recruitment markets, and the number of views was only a few thousand. After posting a video of his own failed business and detection of oral cancer, the number of views rose rapidly, exceeding 200 million.

Whether these videos are real or miserable is really difficult to distinguish. Some netizens left messages under these videos: I was moved, I hope I am not consuming sympathy. Some netizens suddenly realized after seeing the blogger start live streaming goods: So it is.

The reporter combed and found that the phenomenon of selling fictitious facts to divert traffic, and then bringing goods to cash, has become common.

In one video, the protagonist is a gray-haired old man with dark skin, a wrinkled face, his hands trembling on his chest, choking and saying: "I'm 80 years old this year, what should I do if the pomegranate can't be sold?" The text of the video is "This grandfather asked me to help him sell pomegranates, but I can't sell 3 pounds and 9.9 free shipping"; In another video, the same dubbing, tragic music, a vicissitudes of old man staggering past with two buckets of water, behind a pomegranate tree.

After verification, the above two videos were posed and the pomegranates in the previous old man's house had been sold out at that time, and the old man who carried water did not grow pomegranates at home. In the face of the law enforcement officers who came to the door, the video publisher Qiu Moumou said that he wanted to win sympathy and attract attention in order to sell miserable goods. Finally, law enforcement officers criticized and educated Qiu, and Qiu also expressed remorse for publishing false videos.

What's more, under the banner of "poverty alleviation", through fictional life scenes, hype and fictional poverty to achieve the purpose of attracting attention and attracting fans, so as to live broadcast goods for profit. In 2021, the police of Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province, disclosed such a case: the "Korean team" fictionalized the miserable life of Ajia, a little girl in the Liangshan area, who had no father or mother and could not afford to go to school, and then sold the home-grown apples of poor villagers. The so-called homegrown apples are all wholesale from the market.

In the end, the members of the "Korean team" were administratively punished, and the planner Zhao Moumou was administratively detained for 7 days in accordance with the law.

There are also bloggers who posted miserable videos and defrauded money after gaining the sympathy of fans, and were eventually sentenced to prison for fraud.

Rectify the chaos caused by misery

Punishment shall be given in accordance with the law

According to Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, Internet celebrities belong to the category of public figures, and judging from some court decisions, the personality rights of public figures are subject to certain restrictions, and the number of Internet celebrities has a large number of fans, and their expression should bear a higher duty of care than ordinary people, which comes from both moral and legal aspects.

"Today, with the development of network communication, some Internet celebrities have millions of fans, and the benefits of a live broadcast are very considerable. The words and deeds of Internet celebrities may trigger imitation, discussion, and heated discussions among netizens, so they must bear the social responsibility to match it and need to be constrained by higher moral standards. Zhu Jie, a senior partner at Tahota (Chongqing) Law Firm, believes that online celebrity bloggers and anchors have a wide audience, and fabricating and selling tragic stories and spreading rumors can easily cause social controversy and disrupt public order.

In Zhu Jie's view, deceiving netizens through false information to gain sympathy to obtain high traffic is essentially an Internet celebrity obtaining benefits through deception, which should be morally and legally negatively evaluated and punished in a variety of ways. If an internet celebrity obtains donations and tips from netizens by fabricating false information, it is suspected of fraud.

In order to rectify the chaos of selling misery and diverting traffic, the relevant departments are taking active action.

In March this year, the Cyberspace Administration of China launched a two-month special campaign to "clean up and strictly rectify the chaos of 'self-media'", focusing on key platforms such as social networking, short video, and online live broadcasting, and resolutely cracking down on prominent problems such as rumor-mongering, counterfeiting, and illegal profits of "self-media", and creating a clean cyberspace. It mentioned that "self-media" should strictly rectify the use of vulnerable groups for traffic monetization, including cajoling, luring the elderly to pose for videos, setting up live broadcasts, and deceiving netizens into liking, rewarding, donating, etc.; Deceive and lure people with disabilities, and gain traffic through illegal and unethical methods such as selling misery, parody, and abuse.

On March 3, the Information Office of the State Council held a press conference on the 28 "Qinglang" series of special actions. Niu Yibing, deputy director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, pointed out at the meeting that "comprehensively cleaning up poorly oriented and misleading short videos produced through fake scenes, compilation details, fictional experiences and other methods of posing for short videos" is one of the main contents of this special operation.

A staff member of a short video platform told reporters that for all kinds of illegal videos or live broadcasts such as "colorful, ugly, weird, fake, vulgar, and gambling", the platform will comprehensively investigate and clean up anchors and guilds suspected of having the above-mentioned behaviors, and give the following punishments in accordance with the law and agreement according to the actual severity of the anchor's behavior, the degree of subjective malice, and the impact caused:

The first violation shall be given a warning, suspension penalty, education and control; The second violation reclaimed the live broadcast permission for 7 days and required it to pass the online exam and training, and resumed broadcasting after passing the exam; The third violation reclaimed the live broadcast permission for 30 days, required to receive offline training and education, resumed broadcasting after passing the exam, and required it to publicly release a self-discipline announcement video; If the live broadcast permission is recovered indefinitely for more than four times and causes adverse social impact, the relevant guild will be warned and publicized, the authority will be frozen until it is withdrawn, and it will be reported to the relevant department at the higher level according to the specific situation.

The staff member said that for anchors and associations with serious violations or involving illegal and criminal acts, the platform will take the initiative to report the industry blacklist and report the relevant situation to the public security and other relevant departments.

However, experts pointed out that for some miserable videos, in the absence of obvious violations, the relevant anchors may have to repeatedly violate the law before they may be completely removed from the platform, and if they are not reported, it may be difficult for the platform to take the initiative to discover in time. Compared to the proliferation of such videos and the large profits made by influencers, the penalties are obviously weaker.

Establish a joint disciplinary system

Promote platform public co-governance

Zhu Jie believes that to rectify such chaos, platform supervision and public opinion supervision are the key. Online platforms shall perform the primary responsibility for information content management, employ ecological management, real-time inspections, and timely disposal of online information, and where it is discovered that selling misery leads to popular behavior, the platform may ban it, and where the circumstances are serious, the live broadcast room is banned, and it is prohibited from restarting the broadcast, and so forth.

"Online live streaming platforms have strengthened supervision and punishment measures, especially for banned online celebrity bloggers, and major live streaming short video platforms need to form a consensus and join hands to boycott together." In addition, a complaint and reporting portal can be set up in a conspicuous position, and netizens can report such anchors and bloggers, so as to realize the platform and the public to govern the network ecology together. Zhu Jie said.

Han Xinhua, associate professor of the Law Department and director of the Cultural Rule of Law Teaching and Research Office of the School of Cultural Industry Management of Communication University of China, believes that at present, the existence of miscellaneous videos mainly relies on platforms to self-manage in accordance with community codes and user agreements, and take punitive measures of varying degrees such as restricting functions, suspending changes, banning, etc. against users who violate the rules according to their severity. Law enforcement agencies that constitute violations and crimes will be punished. The punishment of a single platform is not enough, and a joint force needs to be formed.

Zhu Wei suggested that joint credit punishment and hierarchical and categorical management should be carried out, and the credit of online celebrities who fabricate false facts or violate moral laws should be downgraded, and if it is reduced to a certain degree or serious violations are reached to a certain extent, they should be banned. Second, the actual users, account owners, registrants and MCN institutions behind the influencer account should bear relevant responsibilities.

"The responsibility of the platform should be increased, for videos that are on hot spots, high clicks, and high number of replies, the platform should strengthen the review before pushing it to a higher hot spot, and the platform algorithm should also strengthen supervision, if the works in the platform are on the hot spot, the platform should bear greater responsibility, if there is a problem, the platform should jointly punish the actual user, account owner, registrant and MCN institution behind the account." Zhu Wei said.

Han Xinhua believes that brokerage institutions and industry associations should play more roles. Brokerage institutions and contracted anchors are communities of interest, and shall periodically conduct training on communication ethics, policies, and laws for their contracted online anchors, and conduct daily supervision and guidance on their behavior.

In addition, Zhu Jie also mentioned that administrative law enforcement departments can impose administrative penalties such as fines, detention, and revocation of business licenses on Internet celebrities and related institutions, or unify market "whitelist" access standards. "The lure of benefits brought by huge traffic has led some influencers to go to great lengths to do something appalling and make up stories to win attention. Relevant departments should give positive guidance to this disorderly pursuit of interests, and promptly investigate and deal with violations of laws and regulations in accordance with law. ”

Manga / Takakashik