Zhang Yongjun, director of the Cyber Comprehensive Management Bureau of the Cyberspace Administration of China, answered reporters' questions, severely criticized MCN agencies for creating public opinion, rubbing hot spots, and creating "internet celebrity children" for profit
Red Star News reporter 丨Pan Junwen Intern reporter Zhou Weihao
Edited by Guo Yu
Governance mcN is a new requirement for the "Qinglang" series of special actions in 2022.
On March 17, the Information Office of the State Council held a press conference to detail the work priorities of the new round of "Qinglang" series of special actions, of which two involved live broadcasts and short videos:
"Qinglang • Crack down on chaos in the field of online live broadcasting and short video" special action, comprehensively clean up all kinds of illegal live broadcasts and short videos such as "color, ugliness, strangeness, fake, vulgarity, gambling" and so on;
"Qinglang · MCN institutions information content chaos rectification " special action, focusing on the rectification of MCN institutions and their accounts to concoct and stir up hot spots of public opinion, trigger group confrontation, deceive and mislead netizens, publish three vulgar information, use minors for profit and other illegal acts.
▲Recently, the Information Office of the State Council held a press conference on the 2022 "Qinglang" series of special actions
Ran Hua, doctoral supervisor of the School of Journalism and Communication of Wuhan University and director of the Media Theory Research Office of the Media Development Research Center of Wuhan University, told Red Star News that short videos and live broadcasts have formed an outlet and continue to develop rapidly in 2019, "the most important reason is that it firmly grasps the psychology of users, and users can directly participate in the video creation process and form a spontaneous communication enthusiasm."
The high heat is accompanied by a chaotic ecology. Since the "Qinglang" operation in 2021, problems such as network water army and traffic fraud have been repeatedly named.
In Ran Hua's view, this year's "Qinglang" special action, in addition to continuing to deal with problems such as network water army and black public relations, also includes problems such as the manipulation of network public opinion and the confusion of application information services in MCN and its accounts into the scope of governance, and proposes to establish a hierarchical management system, which has obvious progressive significance.
Compaction of the main responsibility
Clarify the standards and responsibilities for information content business activities
MCN, full name Multiple-Channel Network, can be simply understood as an influencer brokerage company or "influencer incubator".
This form of business organization, dating back to 2009, is based on YouTube to establish Maker Studios, the main business is to integrate personal creator resources, contact the platform to obtain recommendations, commercialization and other channels, and finally realize content monetization.
After the introduction of this form of business organization to China, it soon began to grow wildly. Ai Media Consulting data shows that in 2015, the number of domestic MCN institutions was only 160, by 2021, this number has soared to 34,000, and it is expected that in 2022, the number of domestic MCN institutions will exceed 40,000.
▲Ai Media Consulting: The number of MCN institutions in China from 2015 to 2023
With the rapid development of the industry, problems have begun to emerge in large numbers. At the 2022 "Qinglang" series of special action press conferences, Zhang Yongjun, director of the State Internet Information Office's Network Comprehensive Management Bureau, pointed out that although the network chaos is related to the management of the website platform, it is also related to the MCN agency, "they are even the initiators of some chaos."
In order to deceive traffic, some MCN agencies frequently create public opinion topics on the Internet, stir up hot events, incite netizens to oppose each other, and undermine network order. Some MCN agencies produce soft pornographic information, hype entertainment gossip, and publish vulgar and vulgar kitsch messages. Some MCN institutions manipulate their accounts to jointly publish information content containing incorrect value orientation in the fields of knowledge popularization, academic research, history and culture, and international relations, interfering with audio-visual and misleading the public.
According to Zhang Yongjun, to carry out the chaos rectification of mcN institutions' information content, "it is necessary to standardize the business activities related to information content of MCN institutions, and the overall idea of governance is to achieve the organic combination of platform management, government supervision and social supervision."
Ran Hua told Red Star News that this governance idea can further consolidate the specific responsibilities of MCN institutions, Internet platforms and regulatory authorities. She pointed out that MCN institutions, as producers of information content, need to have clear business standards, "to be truthful and objective, to eliminate or try to avoid fictional stories, bottomless traffic, can not violate public order and good customs."
▲ An MCN agency displays the mobile phone matrix of automatic brushing in the front hall
It is worth noting that MCN, the new internet celebrity economic operation model, the core of the business is content output, which has the characteristics of information sales and information output, and must follow the laws of the market. Ran Hua believes that based on this combination of content output and commercialization, if mcN is not regulated, such institutions can easily trample on the bottom line for traffic.
Based on this, Ran Hua advocated that in the process of supervising MCN, it is necessary to have the state functional departments supervise the next scene, and more sound legal norms should be introduced, "which must be an idea, an element of intervention (industry)."
Establish a hierarchical management system
Introduced the account identity information change procedure
Wei Feng, a senior partner at Shanghai Dehe Hantong Law Firm, who has long handled MCN-related legal issues, said in an interview with Red Star News that due to the rapid development of the Internet celebrity economy, domestic MCN institutions are mixed, there are head MCN institutions like Qianxun Culture, papi tube, and there are also small institutions with a registered capital of only 100,000 yuan, if a one-size-fits-all management is carried out, it is easy to cause management chaos.
Wei Feng believes that the hierarchical management of different MCN institutions proposed at the press conference is a progressive attempt and "more conducive to key supervision".
Domestically, attempts to regulate MCN institutions have already begun. On December 15, 2019, the State Internet Information Office issued the "Provisions on the Governance of the Online Information Content Ecology", which stipulates the red line that online information content producers are prohibited from touching, and mcN agencies are also producers of online information content, and the red line of its information content business activity standards is generally consistent with the "Governance Provisions" - no matter what kind of standard should be based on national laws as the bottom line, public order and good customs as the standard.
The Provisions on the Ecological Governance of Online Information Content, the Measures for the Administration of Self-Discipline of Entertainers in the Performance Industry, the Handbook for the Inappropriate Content of Online Performances (Live Broadcasts), and the Norms for the Management of Warnings and Comebacks of Network Anchors have restricted and restricted the operation of MCN institutions.
However, Wei Feng also pointed out that in the case of standardization and lack of professionalism, mcN institutions have a large number of problems, and it is necessary to further clarify the legal provisions and strengthen supervision.
On the one hand, the entry threshold of MCN institutions is too low, many people register a team of several people in the company group, sign a few bloggers to say that they are MCN institutions, in fact, do not have the core competitiveness of resources, services and professional level. On the other hand, the contractual rights and obligations signed by Internet celebrities and MCN institutions are not equal, and the termination of contracts is frequent, which also leads to worse and worse unfair competition in the industry.
Especially on the issue of account disputes, Wei Feng believes that relevant laws and regulations should be improved as soon as possible, a clear basis for judgment should be given, and the entanglement of interests should be handled fairly and justly."
▲ Wei Feng believes that relevant laws and regulations should be improved as soon as possible, a clear basis for judgment should be given, and the entanglement of interests should be handled fairly and justly."
Yao Zhiwei, a scholar at Guangdong University of Finance and Economics who has long studied e-commerce law, pointed out that the current determination of the ownership of accounts is still a controversial legal issue - the contract between MCN and Internet celebrities generally stipulates that the account is owned by MCN institutions, and after the termination of the contract between Internet celebrities and MCN, all the agreements of this account face two obstacles:
First, it conflicts with the real-name system on the Internet. After terminating the contract with the Internet celebrity, MCN gave the account to someone other than the registrant (Internet celebrity), violating the online real-name system rule that the account must be used by the registrant;
Second, live broadcasting platforms generally agree that accounts will be used by the platform. The registrant (influencer) only has the right to use, and the registrant needs written consent to use the platform to give the account to others. In other words, internet celebrities do not have the right to transfer the ownership of the account to MCN through a contract.
To solve this problem, Yao Zhiwei suggested that the account identity information change procedure can be introduced to avoid the problem of liability determination caused by the mismatch between the account user and the real-name information caused by the account transfer, but so far, "most platforms do not support it".
Platforms should strengthen information disclosure
The MCN information of the account can be published step by step
In addition to the hierarchical management of MCN institutions and the preparation of corresponding information content management specifications, at this conference, there is also a heavy provision for MCN governance:
The platform is required to strengthen information disclosure, publish the list of MCN institutions and their accounts in an appropriate manner, display the name of the MCN institution to which the account belongs on the account information page, establish a report acceptance channel specifically for the platform to enter the MCN institution, and accept the supervision of netizens in an all-round way.
Deng Xin, a lawyer at Guangdong Global Jingwei Law Firm, pointed out that in order to achieve the effectiveness of this initiative, it is necessary to distinguish between online MCN (signed with the platform, with a related background) and offline MCN, and offline MCN institutions should also be included in the announced management measures.
There is a background correlation mechanism in the online MCN, which can be easily operated. However, for offline MCN institutions, it is necessary to improve the ability to review, clarify the requirements, and ensure the authenticity of the account and the corresponding MCN institution. It is worth noting that the platform should design special processes and mechanisms for the actual situation of offline MCN institutions to prevent the situation that all offline MCNs will become online signing guilds due to the requirements of publicity. Whether to bind an online contract with the platform shall be decided by the guild at its own discretion.
After completing the design of the procedures for publicity, consideration may be given to the unified management of the accounts under the same MCN institution, and in certain circumstances, the account responsibility will be associated with the MCN agency responsibility, and the responsibility for account violations will be traced back to the MCN institution.
▲Under certain circumstances, the account responsibility is associated with the responsibility of the MCN institution, and the responsibility for account violation is traced back to the MCN institution.
For example, if a MCN institution publishes short video content in violation of multiple accounts in violation of the law, in addition to handling the specific account, when it is determined that the MCN institution is obviously at fault for the violation, corresponding punitive measures should also be taken against the MCN institution. Of course, the specific responsibility determination scale needs to be gradually clarified in practice.
Deng Xin pointed out that in addition to the network platform, the Market Supervision Administration and the Cyberspace Administration department can of course also intervene in supervision, "in view of the reasons for platform governance, the administrative department cannot carry out too many practical and specific actions in advance, but more is to carry out guidance, clear requirements and after-the-fact law enforcement."
For the policy of publicizing the MCN information to which it belongs, Zhang Yihao, general manager of Jitao Agency, believes that it should be gradual. He believes that this measure is conducive to the openness and transparency of market information, but in the current environment, the spirit of the contract of practitioners in the industry is relatively weak, and this measure may promote malicious competition and lead to increased management costs.
Zhang Yihao pointed out that the anchor incubation process of the regular MCN will invest a lot of costs, bear the risk of loss, if the list is published, there may be new institutions that enter the industry on the outlet to dig anchors everywhere, resulting in a sharp increase in the management costs of the old batch of MCNs, "Personally, I suggest that the MCN institutions will disclose information after the hierarchical management system is done."
Zhang Yihao said, "I personally suggest that mcN institutions do a good job of hierarchical management system before disclosing information"
For the industry's doubts, Ran Hua pointed out that the net red economy is a new format, and the MCN institutions related to it are also a new product, and its entire upstream and downstream chain is still developing, and it is necessary to strive to make the cake bigger, but also to do a good job of the cake, to divide the cake well, and then let the main participants be able to gain something.
"From the government to the functional departments, I think now including from the industry, at this point everyone still has a consensus, to do a good job in the industry, so from the company to the platform industry, the cultural atmosphere to the format of this environment, in the future need to continue to strengthen."
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