Search for the "Learn English" app but recommended video chat APP, app store recommendation has a mystery

In recent years, various social software has gained the favor of young people, but its content quality is also being criticized by users.

Recently, Shenzhen citizen Xiao Chen revealed to the Nandu reporter that an APP is known as "the last pure land of social software", and he went to the app store to download after being attracted by its reputation, and did not see any risk reminders in the app store when downloading. Unexpectedly, after downloading, I swiped it for less than 10 minutes, and I saw a lot of pornographic suggestive content.

There are many social apps in mobile app stores, and many social software have gray areas, how can app stores play an audit role? The reporter selected Apple, Huawei, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi and other brand mobile phones for testing, and restored the mobile phone to factory settings before testing.

The results found that the social software name and introduction scale in the Apple mobile phone's AppStore were larger, and some of the software was suspected of inducing consumption, and there was no convenient reporting channel; while in addition to the social software containing suggestive pornography content in the Android mobile phone, its app store also implied big data recommendation, and there were ranking "unspoken rules".

Apple App Store: Software introduction with sexual implications

In order to test social applications, Nandu reporters entered specific keywords in major app stores and sampled the top 30 apps from the search results as a sample observation.

In the top 30 software of Apple's AppStore search results, many software names contain sexually suggestive words such as "stimulus", "private", and even "about X", such as "flower X- adult stimulation chat community", "#约X群 live chat will fall in love", "same city about X: global X dating software" and so on.

After randomly downloading such software with names containing pornographic words, the reporter saw that there were many pictures of women wearing sexy clothes in the recommended channels of these platforms, or users posted directly saying "door-to-door service resources (face-to-face payment) point my avatar homepage + buckle" "about resources around." Small video, the home page has QQ+" and other content. The reporter found that these similar pornography-related users left contact information through the platform and diverted them to other social software such as WeChat or QQ.

It is worth noting that some software, even if it seems to be all right in the name, also shows suggestive content in the introduction of the software. The reporter found that in the introduction of a tree hole dating software called "No X", a piece of content containing "There is a private photo, do you want to see it?" " dialog box screenshot.

The reporter tried to download the software, after the registration was completed, the platform popped up a page requiring paid use, "the original price of 98 yuan, limited time discount of 25 yuan", and said that the charge is to "filter non-sincere users, create a pure and private dating community, and ensure the continuous and stable operation of the product". In the AppStore, the software has a rating of 3.8, and the review users said that the software was "scammers cheating money", "after inducing the purchase of members, there was no message", and even some users said that "almost all of them are pimped." Or simply a liar."

It is worth noting that after discovering that social software implied pornography, inducing consumption and other related content, the reporter tried to report in the AppStore, but did not see a convenient reporting channel.

Android Phone Market:

The social app name seems normal, but in fact it also hides pornography

In the Android mobile app market, it is rare to see software that contains straight white love words such as "about X", and the names of most social software seem to be normal. However, the reporter's actual measurement found that pornographic content is actually hidden under the "iceberg", and some of the names seem to be all normal software like the aforementioned software, which is led to other social platforms "private chat" after the user publishes suggestive content.

Nandu reporter downloaded the social software "One X", which xiao Chen broke the news and ranked in the top 30 of the Android app store, and from the name and icon, the software has no obvious suggestive words. However, less than two minutes after browsing the chat content in its public areas, the reporter saw that some users posted pictures of the naked lower body and coded on private parts; there were many users whose user names implied pornographic words; and many users only publicly posted QQ numbers or WeChat to drain traffic. In order to test the drainage purpose of such users, the reporter tried to add a user to drain WeChat, but did not expect that after the successful addition, the other party directly sent a picture of the private part.

Public information shows that the "one X" APP has previously been rectified and removed from the shelves due to being flooded with bad content, and a suspension mechanism has been added after re-listing, and once it is reported and verified, the device being used will not be able to register and use a new account. But even so, judging from the reporter's test, although some users with pornographic usernames have their accounts blocked after posting content, their published content can still be displayed on the square and are not affected by the suspension. Therefore, if such an account publishes a diversion WeChat or QQ, it can still be swiped by users to achieve the purpose of drainage.

Some mobile phone brand app stores:

Search for "learn English" but recommend "social"

It is worth noting that after searching for keywords such as "dating" and "dating" in mobile phones using the Android system, the reporter found that most of the recommended APP on the home page of the Android mobile phone has become social software, and even in the software store to search for keywords that have nothing to do with social software, social software will also appear.

For example, when the reporter searched for "social" in the Xiaomi app store, and then opened the app store to search for other content, 80% of the home page recommendations from beginning to end were social software. A similar situation occurred in the software store of OPPO mobile phones during testing.

In addition, after searching for and downloading social software in the vivo app store, even if you search for "learn English" in the app store, the first software recommended is a video chat APP called "X Object", and only 4 of the top 10 software are related to learning English.

Expert analysis

Operators who have not fully fulfilled their audit responsibilities should strengthen the "bite force" of law enforcement

Why is this happening in the Store? According to industry insiders, after the APP is developed, it needs to be uploaded to the major brand app stores. "But it doesn't mean that after uploading, it will definitely be downloaded by users, so some software will be optimized by entrusting technology companies with keywords and rankings to achieve commercial operations."

Hu Gang, deputy secretary-general of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Internet Society of China and lawyer of the China Consumer Association, believes that although the app store will put forward the existing specifications and content requirements before the software goes online, this is only a superficial review, and it cannot guarantee whether the software will spread illegal content in the future. "At present, there are still illegal software recommended in the app store, indicating that the operator has not complied with the law and fulfilled its audit responsibility." Therefore, the relevant authorities should strengthen the "bite force" of law enforcement and urge app stores to fulfill their audit responsibilities. ”

Mao Peng, a lawyer at Guangdong Shengdian Law Firm, believes that in order to enrich the amount of platform content and increase the stickiness of various people in need, under the situation of inadequate supervision, it may artificially relax the scale of the review of platform content on the shelves, conniving at some gray software on the shelves, if the platform user is a minor or an adult with relatively weak self-control, once similar software is downloaded, it is likely to be affected by relevant bad information, causing unnecessary harm to yourself and even others.

In terms of implying "big data", Mao Peng believes that the software should limit the time, occasion and number of times for consumer ranking optimization or accurate advertising push. For example, if a consumer uses Amoy X to search for baby products that day, the software gives priority to recommend baby products and search for rankings, which is understandable; but if the next time the consumer uses the Taobao X software, there is no baby products entered, but the software still recommends a large number of baby products to consumers, it may affect the consumer's choice or even constitute a problem. In addition, if the consumer only searches for baby products in the Taobao X software, and as a result, when using other APPS, he still unconsciously receives a large number of advertising pushes for baby products, it means that the user's search information is improperly extracted and used by the background software, which is suspected of infringing on personal privacy and constituting infringement.

Planner: Wang Ying

Coordinator: Li Ying

Written by: Nandu reporter Yan Zhaoxin, researcher of Shenzhen Big Things Think Tank, Liu Jiayi

Draft: He Xin

Technology: Zhan Huaping Liang Xiuxia