Quark was fined 500,000 yuan for pornography, why did netizens call "Quark hold on"?

No. 4045 Cultural Industries Review

Quark's "search and recommendation pornography" incident is a serious value-oriented issue, and the fine of 500,000 yuan is the result of "asking for a hammer and getting a hammer". However, the act of "playing with fire" has been complained by netizens. There are three reasons for this phenomenon: first, there are many people who are "less human" than quarks, compared with quarks with acceptable functional value, the "chickens" that "kill chickens and set an example for monkeys" have become quarks, which is difficult for some netizens to accept; the second is the conservative mentality of "don't rectify and make it more difficult to use", the instrumental rationality overwhelms the value rationality, and the "usable" quark is more important; The third is the pinching of the head and tail of the network communication, the simple information in the draft is not applicable to the new media context, it is easy to misinterpret due to the "elimination of clues", and it is urgent to strengthen the policy interpretation of public opinion to guide the bottom.

Author | Hua Cheng (Author of Cultural Industry Review, Researcher of Sanchuan Huiwen Cultural Tourism and Sports Research Institute)

Editor | time

Edit | peninsula

Source | Cultural Industries Review

Recently, Quark was judged by the Internet Information Department to damage the network ecology and fined 500,000 yuan for "searching and recommending pornography". Subsequently, this news continued to ferment on the Internet, although many people applauded the Internet rectification action, but there were also messages saying "Quark must hold on!" "Why does the feedback of regulatory information form a narrative of "quarks are no good"?

△Quark-related entries rushed to the hot search on Weibo

Moreover, judging from the information released by the Ministry of Cyberspace, the judgment was that "there are serious loopholes in the security review and management of information content on the platform", and there is no signal to shut down the software. As the platform responded, it will "ban relevant illegal content". This is a benign interaction between external regulation and the development of the platform, why did it attract a backlash from netizens?

△ Quark remediation announcement

In fact, this is not the first hot search of Quark in October, on October 11, #Quark occupied more than 900G of my memory# Weibo topic was also on the list. Netizens complained that it was not as simple as the past and occupied memory, but on the other hand, they made it clear that they were loyal fans of Quark. It can be seen that the problem of quark has long been the consensus of users, but compared with similar software, the problem is negligible. And this may be one of the reasons why "quarks are rectified, and netizens are upset about it".

△ Weibo entry # quark occupies more than 900 GB of my memory#

Quark was fined for pornography, why are netizens complaining?

Launched in 2016, Quark APP is backed by Ali and equipped with an AI search engine, which is regarded as "small but beautiful" software with a simple design style. According to the "2023 China Search Engine Industry Research Report" released by CTR, Quark's industry penetration rate of monthly active users has ranked in the second echelon among similar search engines, reaching 11.2%. In terms of user experience satisfaction, it tied for first place with WhatsMiner Search, reaching a high score of 4.5.

△CTR "2023 China Search Engine Industry Research Report" mobile data

So, how did quarks catch up in search engines? On the one hand, the concise interface of the advertising mode has won the favor of many users who have been "bitter advertising for a long time", and the attributes of the search tool are amplified to help them open up the market; On the other hand, backed by the self-developed AI search engine of Ali's intelligent information business group, intelligent search makes "comprehensive content" possible, removes the accurate search of "a large amount of useless information", and makes the user experience skyrocket and gain more fans.

△CTR released the brand impression evaluation of the "2023 China Search Engine Industry Research Report".

In a sense, the Quark AI search engine has directly turned Quark from a browser into a user's fancy "novel APP", "information integrator" and "office all-in-one machine". As the saying goes, "success is also Xiao He, defeat is also Xiao He", Quark is out of the circle for providing users with accurate information with intelligent search, but it was also punished for failing to review it. Just like the "People's Hot Comment" comment on this incident, pornography means that there is a serious problem in value orientation, "In the current context of the country's intensified efforts to 'eliminate pornography and fight illegal publications', this is really playing with fire." ”

However, why did the punishment of this act of playing with fire make some netizens feel unhappy and even suspected that it was a "passive cake" report from colleagues? This is based on the fact that some platforms also have pop-ups that jump to unknown websites, and Quark is still a "general among the shorties", although there are problems, but the functional value is still worth affirming.

△ Comments from some netizens under the topic of Weibo

It can be seen that some netizens think that the "chicken" who "kills chickens and makes an example of monkeys" should not be quarks, and there are many people who are "less human" than quarks. And the deeper reason is that the conservative mentality of "don't rectify and make it more difficult to use" has accelerated the spread of this expression.

It is difficult to use magic spells after APP iteration, and should "update" and "rectify" be blamed?

The simple wish of netizens to "use it can be done" is vividly displayed in the quark rectification incident: after the APP or "update" optimization, or "rectification" adjustment, in most cases, it leads to the result of "difficult to use after iteration", which gives rise to the feeling of "not as good as the old version". So, is "updating" and "rectifying" the direct cause of the decline in the experience of using this iteration?

First of all, the essence of a series of much-complained experiences triggered by APP updates is still to respect interests, and the product development idea from the perspective of user use has been lost.

Quark's update and iteration is a case, starting with the ultimate simplicity, in order to maintain the ad-free mode and develop value-added services in the network disk, scanning and other sections, the college entrance examination AI service launched in 2020 is directly aimed at the vertical scene development strategy, and the release of "Your efficient partner" Slogan in 2022 points out the trend of multi-functional development.

△ Quark official website introduction

The "bloat" brought by multi-functional bearing can certainly make users who prefer function aggregation happy and willing to pay, but the phenomenon that the "automatic deduction" reminder obligation is not in place and the membership system is not connected, which exposes the eager monetization mentality, and will be accused of "ugly eating" in 2022; The proportion of software memory occupied has skyrocketed, and under the lightweight failure, the craze of "quark never updated" is booming.

Updates are new, but not all users expect such changes. When the APP "not updated" becomes the norm to be better used, the story of "the wolf is coming" is also staged in the user's mentality.

Secondly, the lack of rectification may lead to the direct removal of the app, which made many netizens begin to take the initiative to correct the name of Quark, hoping that the voice of the masses can make Quark, which is still easy to use, not fall away.

On October 31, the Beijing Municipal Communications Administration removed apps that had not yet been rectified or were not in place for violations of users' rights and interests. However, the hot search entries are simplified into the communication method of #7 APPs all taken off the shelves#, and we can see the new media expression method of pinching the head and removing the tail, and the distortion in communication.

The general public's understanding of the policy is still shallow, but the implementation of the policy needs the support of the people, and the formation of consensus needs to be supplemented by more information. Whether it is the short-term and quick dissemination of sex, or the fragmented way of obtaining information (coupled with the information cocoon shaped by the recommendation of thousands of people and thousands of faces, and the strengthening of one-sided understanding), it is difficult to interpret the difference between "infringement of user rights and interests" and "connivance at the proliferation of pornographic information" and how to treat it, and it is even more difficult to give guidance on this basis, and can only let one-sided understanding circulate on the Internet.

△ Weibo entry #7 APPs are all off the shelves#

In this case, the simple attribution of "APP is difficult to use = rectification and updating" is amplified, and it is difficult to focus on the severity of Quark's value-oriented bias. And this simplified logic has further intensified the call for "quark to hold on", making fans take the initiative to speak out and directly rush related topics to the hot search. In fact, self-renewal is not the same as demanding rectification, but it is confused under the concept of utilitarianism, which is essentially a manifestation of instrumental rationality over value rationality.

The rectification of the Cyberspace Administration of China, why did it become a narrative of "quarks are no good"?

Under the discussion of quarks, the "quark holds" type of comments is particularly prominent. This message is essentially a response from netizens to the policy misreading of the "quark is no longer good" narrative.

This can't help but make people ask, how did the warning information of the Cyberspace Administration of China and the act of setting things right for the chaos in the industry become ironclad evidence to identify "quarks are no longer working"?

△ Some Weibo netizens left a message of "Quark holds".

Among them, there are many young netizens who are not deeply involved in the world, have a shallow understanding of policies and business logic, and grow up in the Internet ecology and love expression. Moreover, the fermentation of emotions and sharp expressions on social media platforms is faster, and the communication logic of "good things don't go out, bad things spread thousands of miles" has also been strengthened.

In addition, the general environment is cold, and people's perspective on events is pessimistic, and this panic in the face of uncertainty is strengthened with the further implementation of Internet governance policies such as domestic social media promoting front-end real-name development. Not every netizen who issued "Quark holds" believes in the narrative of "Quark is gone", but in the fear that Quark will be gone, they tend to believe in this possibility and make a knee-jerk reaction.

△ "black and white" logical message

In fact, the phenomenon of "quarks meet rectification and netizens complain about grievances" has once again taken the fast lane of emotions, and online public discussions have become containers for emotional expression. If it is used well, it is a public opinion guidance that the people want; If it is not used well, it is very easy to affect the credibility of the government.

Therefore, in addition to the motivation of the phenomenon, we should see that the dissemination of policy information is no longer just a simple information dissemination, but needs more levels and multi-faceted information interpretation and content supply, so as to provide more materials for the public to judge the merits and reduce the polarized remarks of "quark is a good website, it is not allowed to be reported".

Public discussion is an important position for public education, and Internet governance may not only deal with information categories, not only to rectify chaos after the fact, but also to actively disseminate mainstream values in the context of new media. The story of "teaching a man to fish is better than teaching him to fish" should not stop at classroom learning, but also be in the "lifelong learning" of public communication.

In this sense, doing a good job in the financial media communication of "resource accommodation, content integration, publicity integration, and interest integration" will become an important measure to eliminate the error between policy implementation and public understanding, and avoid the recurrence of such phenomena.

epilogue

Behind Quark's rectification is the result of in-depth Internet governance; The unfair words of netizens are a direct expression of simple wishes. Quark has gone from "concise" to bloated, from a search tool to a multi-functional aggregation platform, from a user-recognized concise mode of advertising to an ugly appearance of automatic deduction, netizens are not maintaining a search company, but the functional value brought by its company's self-developed system to netizens.

People expect the rectified APP to be better used, but they are also afraid that it will not be as good as they want, and under the two-way stimulation of conservative mentality and network emotion, they ignore the seriousness of Quark's "pornography" value problem, and choose to highlight its function. In this sense, the media that interpret policies may not only stop at the transmission of information, but also spread the confidence energy behind the information. To achieve this, it is particularly important to actively adapt to the guidance of public opinion in the context of new media and strengthen the promotion of mainstream values in media communication.

Partial References:

1. Relevant reports and discussions about quarks

2. CTR: "2023 China Search Engine Industry Research Report"

3. People's hot comments: "Quark" and "NetEase CC" don't "take shortcuts" to defy the law