Two statements
"Work conscientiously and responsibly, be kind and kind, usually use their own B station account to share the daily life of cat raising, cooking and other daily life, is an excellent and lovely colleague."
In the latest announcement of the "sudden death of employees" incident at Station B, the late auditor "Twilight Wood Heart" has finally changed back into a person who once existed vividly. He has a specific position, "the acting leader of the graphic review team", has the Spring Festival duty situation, has the general process of illness and death, and also has the above characteristics that can prove that he is himself, a unique person.
In addition, Station B apologized to the family of "Twilight Wood Heart" for the confusion of communication and aftermath, and announced that it would increase the recruitment of 1,000 auditors and strengthen the attention to the health of audit employees.
At least in terms of text expression, such a warm pulse and attitude of responsibility are very different from the taste conveyed in the first announcement.
In that short four-paragraph circular, there was only one key message: to refute the rumors and work overtime to die suddenly. As for the deceased employee, in addition to the basic information such as the entry time, the specific description of him by Station B is only: "After internal attendance verification, he commuted to work normally according to the work plan, working hours of 9:30 to 18:30, doing five breaks and two days off, and there was no overtime in the week before the incident." ”
The subtext is simply too clear: sudden death has nothing to do with overtime.
After a day, two announcements, the difference is so big, is station B taking a potent growth hormone, grow up overnight?
I'm afraid not.
Maybe it's just scared. The power of public opinion among young people is frightening. After the sudden death of employees, Station B was quickly labeled by young people: assembly line factory, capitalist. This is a word that has frequently appeared in the barrage area of Station B in the past two years. Young people are keen to use them to attack almost all large commercial companies in order to draw lines and take a stand.
This time it was Station B.
Especially after the first cold response announcement was released, such voices appeared on social platforms such as Weibo and Zhihu. Station B has suddenly changed from a "mining company" that loves to spend money to buy copyrights for young people to a ruthless capitalist.
What further exacerbates this public opinion crisis is "auditing." Perhaps the sudden death incident has spawned new review regulations, and many UP owners have found that their videos on this matter once failed to pass the normal audit on Station B. Nowadays, in the search of B station, the relevant videos are also pitiful, and some people question in the comment area:
"This is the B station I love?"
Let young people disappointed and even hate, this is the situation that Station B must try its best to avoid. Although the B station has been out of the circle in the past two years, in the final analysis, young people are the foundation of all its stories. It does not want, dare not and cannot offend young people.
To some extent, the sudden death of employees may be as important to Station B as the "Wei Zexi Incident" to Baidu. Because both seem to be just individual cases, tracing back to the source, but both point to the foundation of the survival of the two companies: young people's sense of belonging and trust in station B, and Internet users' trust in search results.
The latter has suffered a lot for this, and if Robin Li can travel back to 2016, he will do his best to prevent the Putian hospital advertisement from appearing on Wei Zexi's search page.
The B station, where the power is raging, is just avoiding repeating the mistakes of the past.
Young people and work
Although the focus of Station B's operation in the past two years has been diversification and going out of the circle, young people have always been its foundation. From the three promotional short films launched by Station B in the past two years, "After the Wave", "Into the Sea", "Happy Encounter" can be seen one or two, these names read together is "After the Wave into the Sea Happy Encounter".
Station B is looking forward to more diversity, with the back waves into a wider sea. Notice that the "back wave" is the eternal focus of this story. After all, if you lose the "back wave", B stands in the sea and cannot get up.
Before the sudden death of employees, Station B still had many troubles.
For example, the losses that have expanded year after year, from 2018 to 2020, this figure is 560 million, 1.3 billion and 3.05 billion, respectively, 2021 is doomed to be better, the net loss in the first three quarters has reached 4.71 billion yuan;
For example, compared with June last year, the stock price of Station B has fallen by 75%, and the market value has evaporated by more than HK$300 billion;
For example, the game business and investment business that cannot see the progress of the delay - the first batch of young people who watch Station B have already entered the society, and Station B has not yet figured out how to earn their money;
For example, the medium video mode is increasingly being sung down. Advertising implantation, e-commerce live broadcasting, and the commercialization of short videos have been booming, but the Medium Video represented by Station B is still touching stones in muddy waters. Up owners are worried about the right meal, and advertisers have not found how to solve the problem of production ratio in Station B;
For example, the risks hidden by the UGC model. Just in 2022, Station B has fallen into two crises, first by netizens exposing that there are many surveillance videos obtained after suspected cracking the cameras of public places, and then, a doctor in Rizhao, Shandong Province, broadcast gynecological surgery footage live, which led to police interference;
……
Some of these troubles have accumulated over a long period of time in the past, and some are unique to the current dilemma. But in the face of this storm, they have all become supporting roles. Because, if this troublesome matter is not handled well, the labels of "sweatshop" and "capitalist" in Station B will only become deeper and deeper in the repetition of young people over and over again.
"Foxconn"-style assembly line work was originally an integral part of the Internet company. It's just not usually seen.
"They're like gatekeepers of digital content, cleaning up News Feed like shadow workers who come out at night to work, and when really valuable employees come home to rest, they start cleaning the floor." This is not a good picture. This cleanup can be painful because of the daily challenge of rape, illegal surgery, and endless pictures of genitals. ”
In Facebook: The Rise and Fall of a Business Empire, the author cites an American scholar's description of Facebook's content moderators.
Facebook set up the position of auditor in 2009, and the number was not large at first, but 10 years later, in 2019, 15,000 people have been distributed in the terminal nerves of this huge Internet world, like worker ants, cleaning up digital garbage day and night. Most of them are outsourced personnel.
In the Internet industry, which pursues efficiency and growth, Facebook's approach was quickly copied. In China, Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, Kuaishou, Station B, Little Red Book... Almost all Internet companies have built content moderation teams, the difference is only in size.
Station B also continues to expand its own content moderation team. In the latest statement, it is clear that it will recruit 1,000 more people this year to reduce the work pressure of the audit team, in addition, it will also strengthen the attention to the health of the audit staff, including strengthening physical examinations, adding 24/7 health consultation rooms and other measures.
It sounds like it's about "preventing problems before they happen.". But for the "bad" nature of the audit itself, the effect of these efforts of Station B is probably minimal.
Just ask: Do they have time for health counseling? Who will do the amount of work that falls? A Weibo netizen who claimed to be an auditor said in a message about the "sudden death of employees" at Station B.
Station B naturally does not have the ability to resolve the "worst job". Not at any Internet company in China. No matter how smart AI is, the manual content moderation position is still just needed in the Internet world. Because no company can take the obvious risks.
But the "back waves" have already pushed it here. The problem can't be solved, so let's take a stand first – this is how many young people solve the problem anyway. So it was filled with "survival desire" in the second statement, at least with great sincerity.
Such "sincerity", coupled with communication with family members, and even compensation plans that can be accepted by the other party, under these actions, the sudden death of young employees will be quickly covered by new hot spots like most hot spots in the Internet world.
The only way for Station B to stop being collectively attacked by young people is to stop repeating mistakes and no longer offend young people. This is almost impossible to achieve. Just today, station B was sent to Weibo hot search, the blogger who first broke the sudden death of employees broke the news again, saying that he received a lawyer letter from station B and was preparing to respond to the lawsuit. The favorability created by Station B with "sincerity" was lost overnight.
The turmoil continues. Whether it is now or the next stage, serving young people, going out of the circle, and making money is an "impossible triangle" for Station B.
Can only bless the B station, seize the time, and develop well.