Ordinary food becomes a "miracle medicine"? Don't be fooled by these false propaganda in the live broadcast!

The use of short video platforms for live streaming has gradually become the choice of some anchors and businesses, but some false publicity behaviors need to arouse public vigilance, such as food or medicinal materials, which are deliberately exaggerated by anchors and falsely advertised as drugs with therapeutic effects. Experts said that selling food as medicine is illegal, and platforms should take responsibility for the supervision of such chaos in live broadcasts.

Food or medicine? Live streaming claims to "cure all diseases"

Recently, reporters found that on a number of short video platforms, some online anchors exaggerate and falsely publicize through various ways of playing the edges, selling some foods as curative drugs, and some even claim to "cure all diseases" to mislead consumers.

The reporter saw on a live broadcast platform that there is a product called "bitter melon three seven complex peptide solid drink", which is sold live by many anchors on dozens of short video accounts, in the description of these anchors, this "solid drink" product is not only specifically aimed at "high sugar" people, but also can solve the fundamental problems of the body.

In another account, the male anchor also claimed in the live broadcast that as long as it is taken for 14 days, it can have an effect, and it can get rid of diabetes in 3 months.

The reporter found that a number of related accounts were selling the above products, with the largest number of fans being 7,8 and the lowest being more than 400. According to sales records, 1223,<> pieces of this so-called "sugar-lowering" product have been sold in some live broadcast rooms.

In this live broadcast room called "Chinese Food Peptide - Reverse Sugar Journey", the same "glucose reduction" product, the female anchor in a white coat even claimed that this product can do the problems that drugs cannot solve.

The reporter observed that many of these anchors wore white coats, which was easy for the audience to mistakenly think that they were related to medical work. When the reporter asked the anchor if he was a doctor during the live broadcast, the male anchor admitted that he was not a doctor.

The reporter found that these anchors will deliberately avoid the complete keywords of some specific related diseases in the sales process, and instead use some acronyms, such as "little sugar man" for diabetics, "small white tablets" for pills, "needles" for insulin and other injections, "white coats" for doctors or hospitals, and so on. In addition, the conspicuous position of the live broadcast room will also play inducing slogans such as "reverse sugar" and "stop film and stop needle".

"Special medicine" is actually an ordinary food, and the claim that it treats diseases is not credible

This product that the streamers claim to be specifically aimed at "sugar-high" people, is it a medicine or a food? Is it really as the anchor said, can it fundamentally solve the problem of diabetics?

The reporter spent 268 yuan in the live broadcast room to buy this so-called "hypoglycemic" product, according to the outer packaging, its name is clearly marked as "bitter melon three notoginseng complex peptide solid drink", and the reporter did not see any instructions on the "hypoglycemic" effect, and the reporter only saw the food production license number on the packaging of the product. In China, according to relevant regulations, the packaging of drugs will be clearly marked with the approval number of "National Medicine Quasi-Word", while health products will be marked with the approval number of "National Food Health Word".

In the live broadcast room of this account called "Chinese Food Peptide - Reverse Sugar Journey", when an audience asked the anchor whether this product was a medicine or a food, the originally confident anchor did not answer positively.

After a while, the staff typed this reply in the comment area of the live broadcast room, "Traditional Chinese medicine concept Chinese herbal formula". So, is it food or medicine? The reporter took this question to get through to the manufacturer's phone.

During the interview, the manufacturer's customer service admitted that the product was food, not medicine. So does this food have a healing effect? The reporter sent the relevant information of the product to experts engaged in pharmaceutical research, and the experts clearly told the reporter after seeing the relevant ingredients of the product that this product is not a drug and does not have a therapeutic effect.

False propaganda "Amber powder" is said to be a miracle medicine for all diseases

The reporter's investigation found that the above problems of false propaganda and exaggerated propaganda of food as drugs are not uncommon, and on some live broadcast platforms, some anchors will not only sell ordinary food as curative drugs, but even say that some originally ordinary Chinese medicinal materials are "miracle medicines" that cure all diseases.

The reporter saw on a live broadcast platform that this product, called "Fuji Fang Amber Powder", was promoted by the anchor as a miracle medicine that can cure all diseases.

The reporter saw that the amber powder with a net content of 50 grams in the live broadcast room was sold for 288 yuan, and the sales record showed that 3075,15 pieces had been sold. The reporter saw on other e-commerce platforms that the slightly more expensive amber powder 33 grams sold for only 15.250 yuan, and the cheaper 34 grams a can of <> yuan.

So, what is the "amber powder" that cures all diseases in the mouth of the anchor? Is it really such a miraculous effect?

Experts said that amber powder is actually a kind of medicinal herbs, with calming, blood and other effects, but it alone can play a very limited effect, usually doctors will according to different patients' constitution, condition, etc., amber powder with other medicinal materials, so as to play a better effect on patients.

Experts said that consumers suffering from diseases, if they have related physical discomfort, should go to a regular medical institution in time and find a professional doctor for symptomatic treatment.

Yang Honglian, deputy director and chief pharmacist of the Department of Pharmacy of the Affiliated Hospital of Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine: The most scientific method is to first say that patients should not listen to these advertisements, he should come to a regular hospital, find a professional doctor to give him a preliminary diagnosis, and then issue the corresponding prescription. Another is to say that some of him is under the banner of a doctor, but he may not have studied Chinese medicine, so the proprietary Chinese medicine and related drugs he prescribed are not suitable for patients.

The live streaming goods are suspected of false propaganda and are still on sale after the reporter reported it

The reporter's investigation found that on a number of live broadcast platforms, there are many anchors who are similar to exaggerating and falsely promoting the efficacy of certain foods, for example, this named "wet festival herbal plant drink" is said by the anchor to be able to cure nodules, cysts, etc., this "Jujun main yun tea" is said to be specifically for various symptoms of liver discomfort, this "cleansing pill" is said to be able to cure various skin diseases, and this product called "Daodian green juice" barley seedlings are said to be able to clean up blood vessel stasis.

In response to the above accounts, the reporter reported the relevant platforms, but these products are still sold.

Expert: It is illegal to sell food as medicine

It is clear that it is food or medicinal materials, and it is deliberately exaggerated and falsely advertised by the anchor to sell as a drug with therapeutic effect, is the behavior of these anchors suspected of breaking the law? And if this chaos is allowed to persist for a long time, what responsibility will the live broadcast platform bear?

Article 73 of the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that the content of food advertisements shall be true and legal, shall not contain false content, and shall not involve disease prevention and treatment functions. In addition, Article 17 of the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that except for advertisements for medical treatment, drugs and medical devices, any other advertisements involving disease treatment functions are prohibited, and medical terms or terms that are likely to confuse the promoted goods with drugs and medical devices shall not be used. So, what responsibility should live streamers bear when exaggerating the efficacy of ordinary foods to treat diseases and other behaviors?

Liu Junhai, professor at the Law School of Chinese Minmin University: First, selling food as medicine violates the Advertising Law and is illegal; Second, you are not a doctor wearing a white coat pretending to be a doctor, which in itself is also a serious misleading to the right of consumers to know, and to a certain extent, it will also interfere with the normal medical order and affect the credibility of medical staff. At the same time, it also disrupts the normal order of competition between enterprises and enterprises on this platform.

Experts believe that relevant platforms have a legal obligation to control the majority of consumers and prevent the occurrence of relevant situations that endanger consumers.

Liu Junhai, professor at the Law School of Chinese Minmin University: Platforms have this ability, such legal obligations, and such ethical obligations, that is, to help consumers resist such false drug advertisements in the food field, which is a legal obligation that platforms should fulfill, and it is also a legal obligation jointly set by the Consumer Rights Protection Law and the E-commerce Law.

In view of the current chaos in live broadcasting, experts suggest that platforms should take responsibility for supervision, strictly review the qualifications of live streaming operators, and regularly conduct regular inspections of relevant content, promptly suspend the behavior of live streaming operators when problems are found, and retain evidence to cooperate with relevant competent departments in cracking down on governance.

(CCTV reporter Zhang Gang, Nie Heijie, Hao Liang, Li Ming, Li Dajie)