The uncivilized behavior and illegal acts of internet celebrities involving wild animals reflect a new challenge facing the protection and management of wild animals under the Internet economy. It is necessary to strengthen the legal education of Internet celebrities and fans, and increase the intensity of law enforcement crackdowns. In the process of comprehensively improving the public's ecological civilization literacy, improving the relevant literacy of netizens should be one of the priorities of the work.
Xie Yi is a professor at the School of Economics and Management, Beijing Forestry University
Recently, an incident in which a food internet celebrity blogger named "Tizi" filmed a video of boiled and grilled sharks has aroused heated discussion. Some popular science bloggers have reflected that this shark is an internationally endangered wildlife man-eating shark (also known as a great white shark), which belongs to the national second-level protected animal. On July 31, police in Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, said that the shark in the "Tizi" video was indeed a man-eating shark after identification. On August 1, the Nanchong Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs responded that the man-eating shark originated from the coastal areas of Fujian Province, and the relevant personnel have been controlled by the police. "We are in contact with the relevant judicial inspection department to test whether the man-eating shark is a juvenile or an adult in order to assess its value."
This case brings the topic of online wildlife conservation into our sights. Today, with the continuous development of informatization, the Internet is becoming another battlefield for wildlife conservation. Why are videos endangering wildlife so blatantly circulating online? What measures should regulatory authorities and platforms take to protect the internet, a new battlefield for wildlife protection?
Videos of endangering wildlife appear online
Internet celebrities who eat endangered animals, "Tizi" is not an isolated case. Last year, the Tanmen Coastal Police Station in Hainan Province received a tip that a blogger on Weibo named "Ah Zhuang Guo Himself" recorded a video of cooking and eating snails from the national second-level protected animal. After investigation, Wu Mouqing bought a 15-centimeter-long snail at a fishing company in Tanmen Town, Qionghai City, for 70 yuan and gave it to the blogger Zou Mouzhuang. Zou Mouzhuang put the snail on a plate to cook and eat, and recorded a video of the process and posted it on the online social platform.
In addition to eating and protecting animals, live animal broadcasting and illegal arrest are also acts that harm wild animals. According to the "News Hyperlink" of the Voice of China of the Central Radio and Television Corporation, recently, there have been several breeder anchors with monkeys live streaming and selling goods on the Internet, these monkeys are dressed in strange costumes, scurrying up and down, often broadcasting until late at night, making people directly call out that there is a suspicion of animal abuse. The anchor group named "Cuihua Wine and Vegetables" broadcast the whole process of hunting wild bamboo rats of the "National Three Protected Animals". After catching them, they also provoked the 2 bamboo rats they captured with their branches, luring them into fighting each other, causing one of them to be bitten and bloodied...
"The above-mentioned acts are obviously uncivilized, incompatible with the respect for nature, conformity to nature and protection of nature required by the construction of an ecological civilization society, and are also contrary to public order and good customs." Xie Yi, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of Beijing Forestry University, said in an interview with reporters that the man-eating shark has been listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and has also been approved by the mainland fisheries management department as a national second-level protected animal. The act of "tizi" violates article 21 of the Wildlife Protection Law, "prohibiting the hunting and killing of wild animals under key national protection", article 30 "prohibiting the production and operation of food made from wild animals under national key protection and their products", and article 12 of the Regulations on the Protection of Aquatic Wild Animals, "prohibiting the capture and killing of aquatic wild animals under key national protection". Zhang Yu, a lawyer at Beijing Huatai Law Firm, also said that the internet celebrity's behavior has been suspected of constituting the crime of illegally purchasing rare and endangered wildlife products. She may face imprisonment for at least five years or criminal detention and a fine.
For the use of monkey live broadcast and other behaviors, Hu Huijian, a researcher at the Institute of Zoology of the Guangdong Academy of Sciences, said that all kinds of monkeys belong to the national protected animals, and artificially bred monkeys need to apply for a "wild animal domestication and breeding permit". If the individual or unit does not apply for the relevant certificate, the artificial breeding of monkeys is an illegal act. Even if the farmer has relevant proof, from the perspective of wildlife protection, the use of monkeys to live stream goods is not only a violation of animal nature, but also not conducive to the protection of wild animals.
The Internet has become a new battlefield for wildlife protection
Illegal trade in wild animals, indiscriminate eating and other behaviors pose a huge threat to the protection of wild animals. Why is the illegal trade and indiscriminate consumption of wild animals repeatedly prohibited?
Xie Yi said that the uncivilized behavior and illegal acts of Internet celebrities involving wild animals reflect a new challenge facing the Protection and Management of Wild Animals in the Internet economy, especially under the rapid development of the self-media economy.
"As far as Internet celebrities are concerned, there may be two situations, one is not knowing that their behavior is illegal, unintentionally doing it, that is, not knowing the law and breaking the law; The second is to know that their behavior is illegal and intentionally do it, that is, to know that the law is still illegal. Xie Yi believes that for the former, it is necessary to strengthen the popularization of legal education for Internet celebrities and fans; For the latter, it is necessary to intensify the crackdown on law enforcement.
"Regardless of the illegal situation, the behavior of influencers and fans is uncivilized. This also shows that in the process of comprehensively improving the public's ecological civilization literacy, the improvement of the relevant literacy of netizens should be taken as one of the priorities of the work. Xie Yi stressed.
The cyber realm has become a new battleground for wildlife conservation. In order to strengthen the fight against illegal trade and indiscriminate eating of online wild animals, in 2017, the first Internet enterprise alliance in mainland China to combat illegal trade in online wildlife was established. In 2021, the alliance removed or blocked more than 11.6 million pieces of information on endangered species and their products from its platform; In 2020, the Internet Society of China officially issued the group standard "Requirements for the Control of Illegal Wildlife Trade on Online Platforms", which provides implementation standards and reference norms for mainland Internet enterprises to combat illegal wildlife trade on the Internet.
By setting up alliances, formulating and publishing group standards, and removing illegal advertising campaigns, mainland Internet companies have played an active role in cracking down on illegal trade in wild animals and plants. Xie Yi said, but due to the large number of regulatory objects, long supervision time, heavy regulatory tasks and other reasons, the Internet has become a "difficult place for supervision", and it is necessary to play a role in industry self-discipline. Nowadays, the behavior of Internet celebrities playing uncivilized or illegal videos such as cruelty to wild animals to fans is a new proposition that should be paid attention to around the self-discipline of the Internet industry with the rapid development of self-media.
Multi-party cooperation to establish a long-term protection mechanism
In order to strengthen the protection of wild animals, many countries have strengthened legislation on wildlife protection, animal and plant quarantine and epidemic prevention. In the mainland's current legal system, laws directly involving wild animals mainly include the Wildlife Protection Law, the Fisheries Law, the Animal Epidemic Prevention Law, and the Animal and Plant Quarantine Law. At the same time, the Wildlife Protection Law is also associated with the Environmental Protection Law.
Xie Yi said that compared with traditional wildlife protection, wildlife protection in the network field is more specific. For example, the above-mentioned wildlife abuse incidents spread quickly, have a wide range of influences, and have a strong time lag in investigation and handling. It is necessary to strengthen cooperation between management departments and the Internet industry, and management departments should promote the improvement of relevant systems, and Internet enterprises must earnestly fulfill their self-discipline obligations.
"For example, in response to the above-mentioned behaviors involving the illegal consumption of wild animals under national key protection, relevant Internet celebrities should be blacklisted, and a group of Internet celebrities who have been punished for such incidents but have been corrected can also be organized to carry out personal statements to enhance the awareness of the rule of law among Internet celebrities and fans." Xie Yi stressed that without fans, there are no Internet celebrities. The government and society should also form a joint force to pay attention to and enhance the ecological civilization literacy, public welfare and public morality of the vast number of netizens. Fans who have repeatedly been involved in illegal incidents of online wildlife should also be given a warning.
Behind every case of internet celebrity indiscriminate eating, there is basically an illegal trade in wild animals. Xie Yi said that with the sustained and rapid development of the Internet economy, the protection of wild animals on the Internet platform should receive higher attention, and it is necessary to increase the intensity of cracking down on the illegal trade in wild animals and plants.
"It is also necessary to strengthen the linkage between executions in wildlife-related cases." Lu Lei, director of the Discipline Planning Office of the Law School of Chinese Min University, said that it is necessary to use the existing "two laws convergence" platform between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice in various regions to improve the mechanism for linking executions in cases involving wildlife protection; Strengthen the coordination and linkage between procuratorial organs and administrative law enforcement departments, including market supervision departments, forestry departments, environmental protection departments and other administrative departments, as well as postal management departments and network platform supervision departments closely related to wildlife trade, to carry out regular interaction.
Wan Ziming, deputy director of the Department of Animal and Plant Protection of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, also said that in order to achieve a comprehensive and long-term mechanism for controlling the illegal trade in wild animals and plants in the network, the competent government departments need to improve the control mechanism from multiple levels such as legislative regulations, law enforcement supervision, and departmental coordination. The Wildlife Protection Law, which is currently being revised, will further clarify the responsibilities of online platforms.
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