Live governance, the platform shot | Xinjing think tank

▲The China Federation of Network Social Organizations, the China Online Audio-visual Program Service Association and the China Performance Industry Association jointly initiated the Industry Self-Discipline Convention together with Douyin Live. Photo/Courtesy of the organizer

"I was as excited as the sea because I recognized the storm."

Times are rolling forward, and new things are emerging in an endless stream. The rapid development of the Internet industry has also spawned many new formats, and live broadcasting is one of them.

While the rise of live broadcasting has brought new vitality to the development of the Internet, there have also been undesirable tendencies such as "traffic first" and "money worship".

Therefore, "content for good" has become the main direction of content construction of many video platforms and live broadcast platforms.

However, the construction of content is a long-term process, how to maintain a continuous "force for good" in the process of content construction, the upgrading of platform governance measures is particularly important.

At this point, Douyin is actively exploring.

On April 21, the 2022 Douyin Live Broadcasting Industry Ecological Conference was held in Beijing. At the event site, the China Federation of Network Social Organizations, the China Online Audio-visual Program Service Association and the China Performance Industry Association jointly launched the industry self-discipline convention together with Douyin Live.

It proposes that platforms should protect minors, implement anchor grading, and standardize institutional management.

It is not difficult to see that industry self-discipline is becoming an important embodiment of the social responsibility that the platform should bear and the social role it should play.

Behind the rapid development

In recent years, the live broadcasting industry has developed rapidly.

In recent years, with the continuous enrichment of live broadcasting formats, the live broadcasting industry is gradually developing to different platforms and different directions, and the development speed of various live broadcasting platforms is different.

Relevant data show that as of March 2021, there were 151,900 "live broadcasting" related enterprises (including self-employed households) in the mainland, of which 74,000 were added in 2020, an increase of 886% year-on-year.

On the other hand, live streaming users are also growing at a high rate. As of June 2021, the number of online live broadcast users in the mainland reached 638 million, an increase of 47.2% compared with the same period in 2020, accounting for 63.1% of the total netizens.

However, the live broadcasting industry is developing rapidly, and while creating huge value, there are also some problems.

Wei Dangjun, former director of the Department of Network Audio-visual Program Management of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and vice president of the China Online Audio-visual Program Service Association, said that online live broadcasting is a new member of many business categories of online audio-visual program services, and its emergence has brought new vitality to the development of the online audio-visual industry.

At the same time, he also pointed out that the development of the industry should resolutely resist undesirable tendencies such as "traffic first" and "money worship".

The data also shows that in the past three years, the number of judgment documents related to online live broadcasting has shown a linear growth trend. In 2018, there were only 62 judgment documents with "online live broadcasts" in the trial, which increased to 141 in 2019 and further increased to 197 in 2020.

It is not difficult to find that some bad content has appeared in the process of rapid development of live broadcasting.

In response to the "chaos" that appeared in the live broadcast, the relevant departments also began a series of standardized governance.

Previously, the China Performing Arts Association and 14 platform members including Douyin jointly initiated the "Convention on Self-Discipline in Building a Clear Network Culture Ecology" and formulated the "Measures for the Management of Warning and Comeback of Network Anchors".

Up to now, the China Performing Arts Association has successively released nine batches of a total of 446 network anchor warning lists. In addition, the China Performing Arts Association cooperated with Douyin to jointly promote the training of guild agents. At present, the first batch of trainers exceeds 600.

How is the industry self-disciplined?

There is no doubt that how to avoid the phenomenon of "failure" in the content governance of the platform requires a set of strict ideas, including the formulation of governance goals and the implementation of various rules, norms, mechanisms, and responsibilities.

In addition to the relevant departments' control of chaos, platform self-discipline can also promote the healthy development of the industry.

As a platform for the industry to launch a self-discipline convention, Vincent, head of douyin live broadcasting ecological service, introduced some of its initiatives in the development of norms in his speech.

Vincent said that douyin live broadcasting strictly prohibits the consumption of minors. In this regard, the platform has established a mechanism for pre-prevention and in-process interception. Beforehand, Douyin provides a teen protection mode. When the user opens the Douyin App for the first time every day, the system will prompt the pop-up window.

Not only that, after the teen mode is turned on, underage users will not be able to start broadcasting, watching broadcasts, and even wheat, nor can they recharge, tip consumption and withdraw cash. During the live broadcast, if the system detects that a tipping account is suspected of being a minor, it will conduct real-name and face verification, and after confirmation, the relevant consumption will be blocked.

In addition, the platform has also upgraded measures on the reward and return mechanism for minors, and opened up a special customer service line for minors. If the platform verifies that it is a minor consumption, it will be refunded within 24 hours.

In addition, in the past year, Douyin has disposed of a total of 160,000 illegal live broadcast rooms and banned 600,000 real-name cheating accounts.

However, the development of the industry not only requires the platform to strengthen governance, but also requires the joint efforts of guilds and anchors.

It is understood that at the industry ecological conference, representatives of eight guilds, such as Lianmeng Media and Zhiyin Guild, also jointly issued a self-discipline proposal for the association at the event site, promising to do a good job in anchor management and adhere to compliance management. More than 1,000 guilds signed the proposal.

As mentioned above, the healthy development of the live broadcasting industry requires the government, the media, the public and other aspects to make a hole. Among them, the platform continues to strengthen content management, and clarifying the punishment specifications is the most critical part.

In order to further standardize the business behavior of live broadcasting institutions such as MCN/guilds, clarify the code of conduct of live broadcasting institutions, encourage compliance operations, and resist bad business behaviors, Douyin has specially introduced the regulations on the management of live broadcasting institutions.

According to the "2022 Douyin Live Broadcasting Institutions Management Regulations", the guild management system and penalty regulations are updated for the continuous governance of some violations of laws and regulations by live broadcasting institutions, disrupting the ecology of live broadcasting and other undesirable business behaviors.

It is understood that the platform will strictly implement the regulations and continue to manage the code of conduct of MCN/guilds and/or its staff, anchors and other practitioners, including but not limited to 8 aspects such as strictly prohibiting acts that infringe on the rights and interests of minors.

It is worth noting that the regulations also introduce corresponding penalties for violations of the regulations.

In addition to punishing the income of the anchor, the platform also grades the deduction of the "health points" accumulated by the anchor guild, and the most serious points below 50 points will be cleared and notified by the guild.

From content to good governance upgrades, Douyin standardizes operations and strengthens platform governance, which has certain exemplary significance for guiding the orderly development of the live broadcasting industry.

Written by Zha Zhiyuan, Senior Researcher of Xinjing Think Tank

Editor/Xiaoxiao Li

Proofreading / Chen Diyan