Using a search engine, a bunch of "Li Ghost Websites" were searched for by reporters to investigate the chaos of search engine advertising

□ reporter Sun Tianjiao

"I used this search engine out of trust, and when I saw the search results, I felt deeply disappointed - there were too many ads on it, and there were a lot of 'copycat websites' and 'Li Ghost websites'. Beijing citizen Qian Xiao (pseudonym) said with emotion.

It turned out that Qian Xiao wanted to download the well-known game client Steam, so she searched for "Steam" on a search engine, and after the search results were displayed, she clicked on the first place without thinking"Steam Store" and chose to download, and after downloading, it was found that this was an imitation of Steam"Copycat software", calling itself "STEAM". It made her laugh and cry.

Qian Xiao's situation is not unique. The reporter of "Rule of Law Daily" has investigated and found that when searching for some search engines, the search results show that most of the top few are advertising websites, and some advertising websites are not completely consistent with the search keywords, and the self-proclaimed "official website" and "genuine" "Li Ghost Website" are mixed in and tempting to click.

According to public information, search engine advertising is the bidding advertising model, which is an advertisement in which advertisers determine keywords, write advertising content and set their own prices according to the content and characteristics of their products or services. When a user searches for a keyword placed by an advertiser, the corresponding ad will be displayed, and when the keyword is purchased by multiple advertisers, it will be displayed according to the PPC.

The interviewed experts believe that to solve the problem of search engines displaying "copycat websites" and "Li Ghost websites", on the one hand, advertising publishers should be required to strictly implement the "Internet Advertising Management Measures" and make conspicuous marks on advertising websites, and at the same time, more responsibilities should be imposed on Internet platforms, requiring them to bear reasonable care obligations in content review, and if they fail to fulfill this obligation, they shall bear joint and several liability for compensation, so as to curb the impulse of the platform to make profits by allowing violations of the law.

Search for informational ads at the top of the rankings

A large number of copycat websites are disguised among them

Qian Xiao demonstrated to reporters on the computer the whole process of how he fell into the trap of "copycat websites".

She typed "Steam" into the search bar on a search engine, and the page displayed multiple search results. At the top of the list is the "Steam store - Welcome to Steam" website, with a brief text introduction showing "Steam, genuine games with super low discount 1% off, 3A masterpieces, free play for members of popular new games! domestic and foreign games, limited-time special offers, genuine game downloads, new user registration gifts", etc., also with pictures and preferential information of games such as "Jedi Chicken" and "Counter-Strike".

The reporter noticed that it was necessary to observe very carefully in order to see the dark gray "advertisement" next to the URL link at the bottom of the web page.

Click on this website, and next to the scrolling game picture box is the client download option. AFTER QIAN XIAO DOWNLOADED IT, IT WAS DISPLAYED THAT THE APP WAS CALLED "STEAM GAME STORE".

Qian Xiao retrieved the genuine Steam platform separately, and the comparison between the two can be seen, and the icon used in the "STEAM Game Store" is the same as the genuine Steam, but the color is slightly darker. The difference between the two is that some games that can be retrieved on the genuine Steam platform cannot be retrieved in the "STEAM Game Store"; some games that are free on the genuine Steam platform need to be charged or opened in the "STEAM Game Store" - permanent members, annual card members, and monthly card members are 899 yuan, 699 yuan, and 129 yuan respectively.

Qian Xiao told reporters that after she found that the first search result was a "copycat website", she downloaded the so-called "Steam", which ranked second and third, one was a ×× game accelerator advertisement, and the other was also a "copycat website".

Surprised, she took a closer look at the search interface and found that the top search results were all "Steam", but the URL link below had a dark gray "Advertisement" logo. After scrolling through multiple ad sites, she found the real Steam website.

"I originally knew that search engines had ads, but I didn't expect that 'copycat websites' could also be ranked in the form of advertising websites, and the 'advertising' prompts were not conspicuous, could it be that they were endorsing 'copycat websites'?" Qian Xiao was a little angry.

There are many people who download Steam "copycat sites" because of search engine search results. The reporter recently searched for "fake Steam" on social platforms and found that many netizens complained about the professionalism of the search engine and downloaded the "copycat website", and some netizens caused economic losses due to recharge, it was difficult to uninstall after downloading, and personal information leakage received spam text messages.

And it's not just a search engine that's a problem. The reporter of "Rule of Law Daily" also searched with "Steam" as a keyword on three other search websites, and found that the top few were all "copycat websites" marked as advertisements, with the lowest number of 4 and the largest number of 9, and there were many "copycat websites" after the official genuine websites.

It is worth noting that some of the advertising tips of these "copycat websites" and "Li Ghost websites" are marked in the lower right corner of the website page links, separated by titles and game pictures with fonts several times larger than them, which makes it difficult for people to notice;

The reporter randomly searched for different keywords and found that this phenomenon is relatively common. For example, if you search for "professional examination", the advertising pages displayed by the results are called "the strongest certificate application encyclopedia", some are called "national vocational certificate - national unified registration entrance", and some are called "Chinese personnel network registration entrance", but click into the page, all of them are training institutions disguised as official examination websites, and customer service staff contact netizens through pop-up dialog boxes and ask to add friends for follow-up communication.

Many respondents were uncomfortable with these kinds of advertisements. Mr. Zhang, a citizen of Tianjin, said: "Everyone uses search engines to find the information they want directly and quickly, and the top few search results are just advertising websites. ”

In this regard, Tian Lin, director of the Platform Legal Compliance and Public Policy Center of Beijing Yinghe Law Firm, said that taking the Steam game website as an example, after the search engine searched, the top search results were all advertisements claiming to be "Steam". In practice, this will not only mislead netizens, which will lead to subsequent consumer rights disputes, but also constitute infringement on genuine websites, and is likely to trigger whistleblowing and rights protection of genuine websites.

According to Wang Lei, a researcher at the International Governance Base of Cyberspace at Beijing Institute of Technology, search engine platforms should comply with the provisions of the Advertising Law and other relevant laws and regulations, prohibit the promotion of illegal content, and at the same time, it is necessary to add prominent marks to commercial promotion information one by one, and prominently display commercial promotion risk warnings on the search results page.

The interviewed experts believe that this kind of fake and counterfeit website belongs to the "Li Ghost website".

"If the 'Li Kui Website' displays the information content of others' trademarks, trade names, URLs and other information contained in the 'Li Kui Website', which is sufficient to cause confusion among Internet users about the relationship between the two, it constitutes an infringement of the exclusive right to use another person's registered trademark, or constitutes an act of unfair competition by using the unique name of another person's well-known goods or enterprise name without authorization. Wang Lei said.

If the obligation of review is not fulfilled prudently

The platform that causes the infringement needs to be held responsible

Judging from the investigation, some "Li Ghost websites" are full of traps. If netizens do not pay attention to distinguish and believe the content of the web page, they are likely to be induced to recharge and consume under the step-by-step operation.

In June 2023, Ms. Fang from Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, had a broken air conditioner at home, and she directly searched for "Yuncheng Gree Air Conditioning After-sales" on a search engine, and the first piece of information in the search result claimed to be "Gree Air Conditioning Repair Center Customer Service Phone 400-×××". Ms. Fang didn't think much about it, just clicked in and called according to the "official phone" displayed on the webpage to make an appointment for door-to-door maintenance.

"Called at 9 o'clock in the morning, the maintenance worker came to the door at 7 o'clock in the evening, and it took 10 minutes to say that it was repaired. The family asked what was wrong with the air conditioner, and the maintenance worker couldn't say clearly, but asked for 300 yuan for maintenance. Ms. Fang said that when she went home that night and turned on the air conditioner, it was still broken. After noticing that something was wrong, she re-examined the search results and found that there was a faint "advertisement" sign underneath. The real official after-sales hotline can only be found by pulling down multiple search results.

After contacting the official customer service, the maintenance worker quickly came to the door for repair at the agreed time the next day, because the air conditioner was still under warranty, and the maintenance worker did not charge Ms. Fang any fees.

What's more, criminals target the search engine bidding advertising model, and use various means to disguise and attract fraud. According to public information, some fraud gangs seized consumers' needs to "locate and find people", and induced consumers to download the client by placing false advertisements on the Internet to attract traffic. Subsequently, he set up a false name and committed fraud on the grounds of "registration fee" and "confidentiality fee".

So, if there are netizens who are confused by the "Li Ghost Website" linked by search engine advertisements and cause property losses, personal information leakage, spam bombardment and other consequences, what kind of responsibility should the search engine party bear?

According to Li Dongfang, a lecturer at the Law School of Inner Mongolia University who studies the rule of law on the Internet, if a bidding advertisement deceives and misleads consumers with false or misleading content, it constitutes false advertising. Although the operator of the search engine and the entity responsible for the bidding ranking business are not the subject of direct infringement, they shall exercise reasonable duty of care for the "Li Ghost Website", and if an infringement occurs, the search engine related enterprises and the "Li Ghost Website" are subjectively at common fault, objectively causing losses to the search engine users, and may constitute infringement or criminal acts according to the specific behavior composition and harmful results, and shall bear the corresponding legal responsibility.

According to Wang Lei, according to the provisions of the Advertising Law, if the "Li Ghost Website" constitutes trademark infringement, unfair competition and other illegal circumstances to the genuine website, it shall bear the liability for infringement, and if it also causes losses to users, it shall bear the liability for damages to users. If the search engine fails to fulfill its review obligations, knows or should know the illegal facts of the "Li Ghost Website", or fails to take necessary measures such as deleting, blocking, or disconnecting links after receiving complaints from relevant rights holders, it may be jointly and severally liable for the consequences of the damage or the enlarged part of the damage.

"If the search engine party has fulfilled its audit obligation and is not aware of the illegal facts of the 'Li Ghost Website', the search engine party will not violate the law, because subjectively it does not have the intention to facilitate the illegal acts of others. Wang Lei said, but the search engine side should bear moral responsibility through other means, such as a search engine launched a protection plan, netizens log in to click on the search promotion or with the "protection" logo, such as due to fake official websites and other economic losses, can apply to the search engine side for protection, get advance compensation and get consumer rights protection support.

Li Dongfang believes that for promotional information, search engine platforms should bear the main responsibility of advertising publishers in accordance with the provisions of the Advertising Law, for example, as an advertising publisher, they have a comprehensive and active review obligation, if they do not perform or fail to prudently perform their review obligations, and if they know or should know that the advertisements are false but still publish them, they must bear administrative liability in accordance with the law, and if they cause damage to consumers, they also need to bear the corresponding civil joint and several liability in accordance with the law.

Increase penalties and strengthen platform supervision

Double review with manual and technical skills

According to public information, in recent years, the "copycat website" and "Li Ghost website" in the search engine have repeatedly caused controversy.

Tian Lin believes that the fundamental reason for the repeated bans of "Li Ghost Website" in search engines is that the interests of search engine platforms are consistent with the interests of advertisers, so in the face of bidding advertising, some search engine platforms do not stand on an objective and neutral position, and it is inevitable to do bidding ranking in line with interests.

"Advertising governance is an extremely complex project. In fact, it is not only difficult for the public to distinguish the authenticity of the 'Li Ghost website', but also the search engine side sometimes finds it difficult to distinguish the authenticity of the main line of advertising, and can only be judged by online qualifications, such as whether it provides a legal business license, ICP filing (Internet information service filing) and other qualifications. Wang Lei said that unlike the scenarios of social networking, e-commerce and information aggregation are under the control of the platform, the search platform has regarded linking to external websites as an important function since it appeared, and the external scene means that the control of the platform is weakened, resulting in some unscrupulous businesses "stealing beams and changing pillars" to change the web page into "Li Ghost website".

As for how to deal with the "copycat websites" and "Li ghost websites" in search engines, Li Dongfang suggested that at the institutional level, the legislative, law enforcement, and judicial fields should strike hard at the problem of fake websites, that is, strengthen the punishment for the "dishonest" behavior of PPC advertising on the existing basis. At the technical level, it can be combined with the artificial intelligence technology that has been widely used, by setting more reasonable and standardized audit standard parameters, and using the dual audit method of artificial intelligence review + manual review to filter "copycat websites" and "Li Ghost websites". Relevant enterprises should also give priority to technical measures in a timely manner to avoid presenting false and illegal search results in front of users.

In Tian Lin's view, advertising publishers must strictly implement the "Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising", make conspicuous signs of advertising websites, and should be conspicuously distinguished from non-advertising websites. At the same time, the relevant departments and the media should make more disclosures, provide redress channels for consumers who have been harmed, and encourage counterfeit genuine websites to protect their rights in a timely manner.

"There is also a need to put more responsibility on internet platform operators. Tian Lin said that because it is in the interest of the platform to publish bidding ads, in this case, the release of information cannot fully follow the safe harbor principle, and it is not a matter of removing and punishing it just after receiving a regulatory notice, but must require the platform to take a step forward in undertaking the review obligation of content release. Taking Steam as an example, it is clear that it has an official website, but it is ranked behind several confusing ad slots, and it is difficult for people to believe that the platform's approach is not intentional.

"In the event of a dispute, the court may require the platform to bear the burden of proof to prove that it has fulfilled its duty of reasonable care in content moderation, otherwise the platform should be jointly and severally liable for the losses caused by the illegal acts to consumers and genuine websites, so as to fundamentally curb the impulse of the platform to profit by intentionally or unintentionally allowing the violation of the law. Tian Lin thinks.

"Don't easily deny or be biased against the paid search advertising business model that is prevalent in the industry, consider whether the litigation is fraudulent, confusing or misleading in individual cases, comprehensively consider all factors, and analyze and judge from the perspective of operators, consumers, social and economic order, and the overall interests of society. Wang Lei reminded.

Comics/Li Xiaojun

Source: Rule of Law Daily