Reporters went undercover and more than 10 online trolls found that online shopping praise may be brushed out

Investigate motives

At the beginning of this year, the State Internet Information Office issued a notice on the "Provisions on the Administration of Information Services for Mobile Internet Applications (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)" for public comment. The Draft for Comments stipulates that application providers shall standardize their operation and management behaviors, and shall not use machine or manual means to brush lists, brush quantities, control ratings, and create false traffic.

On January 14, the Ministry of Public Security held a press conference to introduce that the network water army has gradually evolved from a simple post "irrigation" to the implementation of paid deletion of posts, false comments, rumors and drainage, counterfeit news media extortion and other illegal and criminal acts. In 2021, the public security organs investigated and handled more than 200 related cases, arrested more than 2,000 criminal suspects, shut down more than 6.2 million online trolls accounts and more than 1,200 websites in accordance with the law, and dissolved 170,000 online groups, effectively purifying the network environment.

How exactly does the cyber trolls work? What are the hidden secrets behind it? In order to uncover the dark curtain of the online water army, the reporter joined more than 10 network water army groups to conduct undercover investigations.

"Recruit the water army, 1r one, to do it." In a QQ group called "Baidu Tieba Combination Control Review", the group owner sent a task. In the group, the reporter of the "Rule of Law Daily" privately sent a message to the group owner and received the task. According to the requirements of the group owner, the reporter uses his personal account to click on the link provided by the group owner (to evaluate a movie), copy and paste the content provided by the group owner and click to publish. Then, save the screenshot of the comment and send it to the group owner.

After a while, the group owner transferred a commission to the reporter: 1 yuan. At this point, the reporter learned that the "1r" mentioned in the task represents 1 yuan.

This is the first order received by the reporter's undercover network trolls recently.

Copy and paste the scheduled copy

The more genuine the comment, the higher the pay

Later, the group owner released another task, also with a long paragraph of written copy, but this time the task was to smear a tourist resort, and the copywriting was very rough and bad. "You just need to copy and paste the text on your account." The group leader said so.

When the reporter questions whether the content of the copywriting is too bad, will it affect the bad? The group leader explained: "We are only doing the water army, just to complete the tasks sent down from above, and we don't need to care about the follow-up effects." There are many such tasks, and if you do more, you will feel normal. ”

The reporter did not take this order on the grounds that he needed to adapt when he first entered the industry.

However, through many exchanges with the group owner, and in the process of continuously joining other water army groups, the reporter has an in-depth understanding of the operation mode of the network water army.

According to the owner of the group, the network water army business has a wide range of sources, taking the entertainment industry as an example, some small stars will hire water troops to increase popularity in order to become famous, and their brokerage companies will give the task to organizations that specialize in network water troops, organize and hire a large number of water troops, impersonate the star's fans to make positive evaluations on the Internet, creating the illusion that the star is highly sought after.

Xiao Zhang, a fan of a star, told reporters that one day, the administrator of her fan base found her and asked if she was willing to provide funds to brush traffic for the stars she powdered. It turned out that the TV series in which the star participated was about to start broadcasting, and the "pink head" was ready to hire a water army to brush reviews for the TV series. Xiao Zhang knew where such a neat and uniform response slogan below the TV series review came from.

In fact, the above-mentioned water army group where the reporter is located belongs to the last link of the water army industry chain and is the link with the largest number of people. This ring is also divided into two categories: one is a small number of people, which is a boutique group with hundreds of people; the other type of large number of people, which is a task group of more than 1,000 people.

What is the difference between the two types of water army groups? According to the reporter's investigation, the task group is often pure copy + paste, and the copy of the comment is almost the same; and the boutique group, when commenting, should not only be graphic and textual, but also have different comment content, so that the comments look more real. The latter is more complex and the corresponding remuneration is higher.

The reporter then joined a boutique group, and the "main attack" business of the group was a large e-commerce platform. Each time the group owner sends the product link to the group, after the group friend receives the order, the group owner will send different copy and video pictures to each group member who receives the task. After that, the group friends who receive the task should use their personal account to take pictures of the products and upload the comment content given by the group owner in advance.

As required, the reporter participated in one of the tasks - taking pictures of fruits and providing screenshots of orders and comments to the group owners. After verification, the group owner transferred the principal and commission (1.5 yuan) to the reporter.

The reporter found undercover in the network water army group that the "scope of work" of the water army can be described as extensive - product praise, film and television control reviews, short video popularity, fake fans, etc., all areas that require the participation of network users, almost all of them have their presence.

In this regard, a staff member of a public relations company who has used the network water army said that it is often said that "three people become tigers", and the purpose of the water army is to create a huge public opinion to guide netizens, so as to achieve the effect expected by employers.

Business is booming in the water army

Complete missions disband quickly

The water army group is not only "widely involved", but also "prosperous business" every day. According to statistics, the group of water troops that the reporter first joined, in one day, the group released as many as 436 various tasks. During peak periods, tasks are assigned to groups in minutes.

Among the more than 10 online water army groups that reporters joined, each group has more than a thousand people. In order to conceal, the people assigned the task often gave the group a name that had nothing to do with the water army, such as returning from the snow and gathering together. Among them, some groups are set up as a total ban, and only the group leader can speak. Some group owners will pull the group members who receive the task to a new group or discussion group after the task is released, and then quickly disband the group after the task is completed.

The reporter found that in some boutique groups, in order to make the water army closer to the real user, the group owner will also conduct "induction training" for the water army.

Because the reporter has been actively speaking in many network water army groups, he was recommended to the boutique group by the administrator.

After entering the boutique group, before taking the first task, the group administrator added reporters as friends and sent a document for training. Click on the document, the content of which can be summarized in two words: "words". For example, the evaluation of the mask, first said "the baby received, very good to use, the light of domestic goods", and then said "the effect of this brand is very good, the use of sensitive muscles is not a problem at all, the essence is particularly much, the packaging is exquisite, the logistics is fast", and finally recommended "worthy of uncontrollable and love beauty friends to start, sisters quickly close their eyes".

After "studying", the reporter took the first task in the group. The employer is a beauty blogger stationed on an online platform, in order to make her family's mask sell a big sale, hire a water army to brush the praise under the mask sold in her home, but not ordinary praise, but to "walk the heart" of the wonderful comments.

The administrator told reporters that the purpose of creating a boutique group is precisely this, and now the role of ordinary water army brush reviews is not great, and only boutique reviews can be convincing.

The mission required the reporter to play a "senior experiencer", and said that he was quite surprised after using this mask, so he wrote a long "planting grass" article. Of course, the framework for evaluating copywriting is set in advance, but it requires journalists to play with this idea to increase credibility.

It is understood that such tasks are called "promotion" in the water army group.

After the reporter and the administrator had many contacts, the other party deliberately "pulled the reporter under his command" and became a member of their organization, undertaking work similar to that of the leader of the water army group.

To investigate more deeply, the reporter agreed to the administrator's invitation. After that, the reporter's job changed from the original task to the dispatch task: every day from the more advanced, more hidden group to get the task, and then as a "small boss" after deducting his own profits, forwarded to the water army group. The price of each task ranges from 0.5 yuan to 1.5 yuan. The owners of the water army group can take twenty percent of it as profit and keep it for themselves.

In the meantime, the reporter also received several large tasks with relatively high amounts, such as paying attention to the WeChat public account of a certain enterprise, etc. Due to the complexity of the operation and sometimes the need to enter personal information, the remuneration has also risen. Tempted by high commissions, these tasks will soon be picked up by some group owners.

The reporter tried to take over a task of brushing comments, and immediately after sending it to the group, dozens of people came to receive the task, and in the next two hours, the reporter's QQ dialog box has been crowded with dialogue windows, or to receive the task or complete the task after the reward.

In order to further investigate further, the reporter proposed to the administrator the wish to "promote", which was rejected. The administrator said that the "big bosses" are all prepared for the employer's cronies, because there is a lot of "oil and water" in it, and people who have no relationship can easily enter it.

"In the film and television industry, you need to be related to an artist's agency to have a chance to become a 'big boss', after all, no one knows whether you are sabotaging for other people's families." 」 The administrator said.

The conduct of the trolls is suspected of violating the law

Multi-party collaborative governance is required

TV series and movies are well received but not good; when watching live broadcasts, a large number of identical bullet screens are often floated; the reading volume of an article rises to 100,000+ in an instant; many reviews are always surprisingly consistent when shopping online... As the investigation progressed, the above situation seemed to have an answer.

So, is the cyber trolls legally present?

In the view of Yao Jinju, a professor at the Law School of Beijing University of Foreign Chinese, the internet water army generally refers to a group of people who are employed by public relations companies or network organizations, are dominated by public relations companies or organizations, and post back to others for purposes such as speculation or slander. It is a criminal act for the water army to speculate and slander other market operators for illegal profits by posting.

Zhang Xingshui, director of Beijing Jingding Law Firm, said that the behavior of the online water army has seriously disrupted the order of the socialist market economy and interfered with and destroyed the network environment. According to the relevant laws, if the acts of the sailors infringe on personal rights and interests, they must not only stop the infringement and make up for their mistakes, but also bear the corresponding compensation liability. The Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Disputes Involving the Use of Information Networks to Infringe upon Personal Rights and Interests make it clear that where the infringed party requests the perpetrator to bear joint and several liability, the people's court shall support the employment, organization, instigation or assistance of others to publish or forward online information to infringe upon the personal rights and interests of others.

The above-mentioned judicial interpretation also stipulates the manner of assuming responsibility: where a people's court rules that an infringer bears the form of liability such as making a formal apology, eliminating the impact, or restoring his reputation, it shall be commensurate with the specific method of infringement and the scope of the impact caused. Where the infringer refuses to perform, the people's court may employ reasonable methods such as publishing a public announcement or publishing a judgment document on the Internet to enforce it, and the resulting expenses are borne by the infringer; where the network user or network service provider infringes upon the personal rights and interests of others, causing property losses or serious mental damage, and the infringed party requests that it bear liability for compensation in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, the people's court shall support it.

At present, the water army group is still active in major online platforms, how to regulate?

Yao Jinju believes that the regulation of the water army requires the joint efforts of many aspects, and multi-pronged efforts can achieve obvious results. First of all, the public should enhance their legal awareness, strengthen the social propaganda of the use of network norms, make people realize that malicious rumors on the Internet and the way to make profits through the water army are illegal, suspected of breaking the law and committing crimes, and then strictly regulate their own network behavior. When using the Internet, abide by the rules of the Internet platform and look at the content on the Internet rationally. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen their own sense of prevention, not to accept the instigation of others, and not to follow the trend to comment or delete posts or posts.

Second, network platforms should continue to improve their management capabilities and content moderation of network users. At the beginning of this year, the State Internet Information Office issued the "Provisions on the Administration of Information Services for Mobile Internet Applications (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)", in which Article 6 states that "if users do not provide real identity information, or fraudulently use the identity information of organizations or others for false registration, they must not provide relevant services for them"; Article 9 proposes that "application providers shall establish and improve mechanisms for reviewing and managing information content, and establish and improve management measures such as user registration, account management, information review, daily inspection, and emergency disposal." Equipped with professional and technical competencies commensurate with the scale of the service". After the adoption of these regulations, it will increase the cost of network dissemination to a large extent.

Third, the regulation of the network water army between various law enforcement regulatory departments should cooperate and coordinate with each other, especially the administrative law enforcement departments, to further clarify the identification requirements of the network water army, and clarify more specific governance means. (Reporter Han Dandong Intern Wang Yitian)

Source: Rule of Law Daily