McN hierarchical management: only block Internet celebrities, do not pursue the responsibility of the organization, will treat the symptoms and not the root cause

Recently, the State Council Information Office held a press conference on the 2022 "Qinglang" special action, at which Sheng Ronghua, deputy director of the State Internet Information Office, said that the 2022 "Qinglang" series of special actions focused on problems with wide impact and great harm, including 10 key tasks.

Among them, the special action of "Clear MCN Institution Information Content Disorder Rectification" is eye-catching, and the Cyberspace Administration of China said that it will concentrate on rectifying 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, and use minors for profit. Supervise and urge key website platforms to establish a hierarchical management system for MCN institutions, clarify the standards and responsibilities of MCN institutions' information content business activities through the platform MCN agency settlement agreement, strengthen daily supervision, regularly carry out training, strengthen information disclosure, establish special report acceptance channels, and strengthen the handling of violations.

Nandu reporters asked douyin, Kuaishou and other platforms about the response to the grading system, as of press time, has not yet replied.

Existing ratings differ from regulatory requirements

Zhang Yongjun, director of the State Internet Information Office's Network Comprehensive Management Bureau, said at the press conference that the government will strengthen supervision, further clarify standards, draw red lines, strictly prohibit MCN institutions from creating public opinion and rubbing hot spots, strictly prohibit MCN institutions from creating "net red children" for profit, strictly prohibit MCN institutions from manipulating their accounts to fictitious attention, page views, and evaluation scores, strictly prohibit MCN institutions from publishing homogeneous content in batches, distort the truth of the facts, mislead the public, etc., and will also issue clear MCN agency information content management specifications in the future. At the same time, the public's supervisory role is equally important, and the Cyberspace Administration of China said that it will require the platform to strengthen information disclosure, establish a report acceptance channel specifically for the platform to stay in mcN institutions, and accept the supervision of netizens in an all-round way.

Nandu reporter noted that Kuaishou and Douyin currently have their own set of grading methods. In 2019, kuaishou and Douyin both carried out hierarchical support for MCN institutions and announced specific grading standards.

Among them, Kuaishou divides MCN institutions into four levels: S strategy level, A core level, B content level and C settlement level, and evaluates them according to six indicators such as "the number of high-quality accounts, the total number of accounts, the total number of posts, the total number of plays, the total number of fans and the number of videos released per capita" in a monthly unit.

Douyin also adopts the content DP (Douyin Partner) assessment and advancement system, according to the "number of high-quality accounts, total number of accounts, total number of fans, total playback, total number of fans and per capita video releases" 5 dimensions to divide MCN institutions into strategic level, core level, content level and settlement level, different levels, enjoy different rights and interests.

A person close to Kuaishou told Nandu Reporter that at present, the MCN agency in the platform is being reviewed according to relevant documents, and a grading method that meets regulatory requirements is adopted.

Douyin said that there was no response to the MCN rating. However, Douyin Live recently issued the "Announcement on The Serious Rectification of Bad Live PK Content of Douyin Live", and the platform will strictly control ten major violations such as malicious speculation, gang formation, and incitement of fans. For anchors who violate relevant norms, the platform will suspend or even permanently recover live broadcast permissions based on the severity of their actual behavior, the degree of subjective malice, and the impact caused.

Liao Xuhua, senior analyst of Analysys Interactive Entertainment, told Nandu reporter that the classification required by the Cyberspace Administration of China and the current classification of the platform are two concepts, for the platform, the first thing that is needed is to clarify the standard of content classification, which requires the industry to form a certain consensus, and secondly, to re-check the account and content of MCN, determine the classification attribution, and most importantly, establish a long-term supervision mechanism. "The difficulty lies in how the platform balances interests and social responsibilities, and how to deal with the problem of grading adjustment when there are more large MCN content sections or WHEN MCN needs to expand content in the future."

Behind the chaos, MCN agencies "stealth"?

In the domestic live broadcast and short video platforms, MCN institutions mainly play the role of "broker company" behind internet celebrities, from discovering new people, using templates for packaging, arranging their video production content, and even maliciously channeling their Internet celebrities behind their backs.

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.

Along with the popularity of the Internet celebrity economy, there are also various network chaos, "3 ·15" evening party, the live broadcast industry and the MCN agencies behind it have repeatedly encountered "roll call". In recent years, with the launch of the "Qinglang" action, the relevant departments have intensified their governance of such content, banned many bad artists, interviewed relevant platforms many times, and asked the platforms to rectify. However, behind these handling actions, the MCN agency, as the "planner" and "initiator" of these contents, is "invisible" in these storms, silent about the penalties imposed on its artists, and turns around to continue to "incubate" the next "traffic superstar".

In fact, the effective management of MCN institutions should have long been put on the agenda, and in December 2019, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued the "Provisions on the Ecological Governance of Online Information Content", which stipulates the red lines that are prohibited from being touched, the "Measures for the Self-Discipline Management of Performing Artists in the Performance Industry", the "Manual of Online Performance (Live) Content", the "Management Specifications for Network Anchor Warnings and Comebacks", and the "Measures for the Management of Online Performance Brokerage Institutions" and other relevant contents that also restrict and restrict the operation of MCN institutions. The establishment of a hierarchical management system for MCN institutions and the strengthening of disclosure will further standardize the content ecology.

A relevant person on a live broadcast platform in Beijing told nandu reporter that for live broadcast or short video formats, the platform should bear the main responsibility, but the anchor and the platform are often not direct labor relations, but the ecosystem of the three parties, including the guild and MCN institutions, the platform controls the content, the brokerage agency directly manages the anchor behavior, and the latest statement of the regulatory authorities also means that the management responsibility is moved forward, which is a good thing for the entire content ecology. "For the platform, the rating of MCN also depends on the content rating basis, and as for how to rate, it is also necessary to communicate with the regulator about the relevant standards."

Industry insiders said that the lack of accountability mechanism for MCN institutions has led to the treatment of blocking some "internet celebrities" who produce vulgar content, and under the same template, MCN institutions can quickly hatch many homogeneous "internet celebrities". In the short video era, a large amount of traffic is pouring in, and the phenomenon of "one Internet celebrity feeding a company" also makes the trial and error cost of MCN institutions lower.

Some insiders told Nandu reporters that under certain circumstances, "sitting together" measures can be taken to associate account responsibility with MCN agency responsibility, and the responsibility for account violations can be traced back to MCN institutions. "For example, the blacklist system, if there is a problem with the anchors under mcN, MCN institutions will also be punished accordingly, such as reducing commissions, and even banning different business behaviors of MCN institutions according to the severity of irregular behavior."

Yu Wenhao, chairman of Yourui Media, told Nandu reporters that after the content censorship system is established first, more refined grading has the soil for implementation, so for the platform and MCN agencies, "content review is the first, copying radio and television review standards is a direction, but this workload is huge." ”

Industry insiders pointed out that the grading system will consolidate the specific responsibilities of MCN institutions, Internet platforms and regulatory authorities, and MCN institutions, as producers of information content, need to have clear business standards. Although the relevant departments should respond to the situation when the rectification of MCN institutions is appropriate, they should also pay attention to avoiding "one-size-fits-all" in the governance process, and while clarifying responsibilities and obligations, they should maintain the overall vitality of the short video and live broadcast industry as much as possible, and get out of the strange circle of "one tube is dead".

Written by: Nandu reporter Ye Lu intern Duan Xinyu