The "Cat Cup" incident continues to ferment.
At the beginning of the year, the video of "Picking up Qin Lang's homework book for primary school students in Paris" once became a hot spot on the Internet. On April 12, the Hangzhou Public Security Bureau issued a notice: The series of video scripts released by the Internet celebrity blogger "Mao Cup" were planned and fabricated, and the public security organs imposed administrative penalties on the "Mao Cup" himself, the choreographer Xue and the company involved. After that, WeChat, Weibo, and Douyin banned the "cat cup" account.
But the incident did not end there. On April 16, the clothing brand OMETOO store of "Mao Cup" announced that it would terminate its operation. The reporter searched and found that the name of the Taobao store was no longer displayed, and the page in the Douyin store showed that the store was about to stop operating, and according to relevant laws and regulations, it is hereby announced.
From tens of millions of Internet celebrities to accounts being blocked by the whole network, "Cat Cup" has paid a painful price for spreading rumors.
Some industry insiders revealed to reporters that the "cat cup" incident has sounded the alarm for the entire industry, and at present, a number of MCN agencies and advertising media companies are conducting internal self-examinations, and some marketing events that were originally planned were also withdrawn by Party A in time.
Is the "cat cup" completely "cold"? The relevant stores have not all been closed, and the affiliated companies continue to exist normally
After the "anti-counterfeiting" turmoil, many people still pay attention to the whereabouts of "Cat Cup".
Have the related companies of "Cat Cup" been shut down?The reporter noticed that according to the equity penetration of the enterprise investigation, through equity investment, the actual "Mao Cup" has control over a total of 12 companies, and in Hangzhou, the affiliated company of "Mao Cup" is named Hangzhou Thurman Network Technology Co., Ltd.
On April 16, the reporter called Li Moumou, the legal person of Hangzhou Thurman Network Technology Co., Ltd., many times, but he was unable to get through.
The relevant staff of the Binjiang District Market Supervision Bureau told reporters that the company is still in existence. After the reporter's on-site visit, the company was in normal operation, and the employees were still going to work as usual, but they were unwilling to respond to the incident.
Previously, some media broke the news that the MCN company to which "Mao Cup" belonged was Shantou Daogu Entertainment and Culture Media Company, and the reporter also called the company's legal person, Mr. Zhang.
Mr. Zhang responded that they were only an external cooperative company, and they did part of the content distribution through authorization, but they were not involved in any operation and content planning of the company at all. "We have terminated the cooperation with the MCN company in Hangzhou, and we have not received any notice from the relevant departments after the incident, and this matter has nothing to do with us at present. ”
HOWEVER, THE REPORTER FOUND ON TAOBAO THAT THE TWO COMPANIES UNDER THE "CAT CUP" OPERATE TWO STORES "OMETOO" AND "THURMAN" RESPECTIVELY, THE FORMER CAN NO LONGER BE SEARCHED, AND THE LATTER IS STILL OPERATING NORMALLY. The reporter asked the customer service whether it could be shipped normally, and received a positive answer.
It can be seen that although the account of "Mao Cup" has been banned by the whole network, there is still a part of its commercial territory alive, and we will continue to pay attention to how it will develop in the future.
Event marketing clearly marked the price, and a planning video can sell for hundreds of thousands of yuan"In the industry, operations like 'cat cups', which we collectively call event marketing, are some true, but more often than not. Industry veteran Ahua (pseudonym) told reporters that he had helped many Internet celebrities "start their accounts" and participate in content creation and management.
At a time when the self-media track is becoming more and more "volume", Internet celebrities not only need to shape their personalities, but also need to plan video content to attract fans and monetize, and traffic is the most important part.
For this reason, creating accidents, fabricating events, and deducing plots have become the "routine operations" of some Internet celebrities when shooting videos. "Generally speaking, topics such as gender antagonism, education, emotional disputes, and economic disputes are the most likely to detonate public opinion. So we do planning, and we do it in these directions. Ah Hua said.
"Posing from the perspective of surveillance, the personal first-person perspective narrative in front of the camera with a few pictures, true and false jokes, and some of the content of the couple's account are all the 'hardest hit areas' of the story. Ah Hua said.
As netizens become more and more discriminatory about the authenticity of the incident, the planning methods are gradually escalating, so it also needs to consume greater costs. "Some events have to have pictures and truths, so we have to invite extras, 500 yuan a day, to make things as if they were true, but they will be vague in some key information to avoid being asked. Ah Hua said that these plans will be clearly marked according to the final traffic estimation effect, and some will also implant brands, and the price of a planned video ranges from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan.
"'A Cup of Cats' probably also saw that it was the Spring Festival at the time, and such a topic might be hot, so I fabricated this incident, but I didn't expect a fake Uncle Qin Lang to emerge, which made people find out that something was wrong, and finally got out of her control. Ah Hua said.
The reporter noticed that before the Douyin platform released the work, the background would remind the content to be a fictitious statement for checking. But Mr. Ah said many bloggers would refuse to tick the statement, after all, fictional events are far less convincing than a "true story."
After the "Cat Cup" incident, the self-media industry is also in the "aftershock".
"We started internal self-examination a few days ago, and accounts like this kind of self-directed and self-acting plots have been temporarily suspended, and the company is also planning a new direction for their account content. Xu Shu (pseudonym), a manager of a small MCN agency, told reporters. Now before publishing the content, they will repeatedly confirm the authenticity with the blogger, "The previous content script involving brand cooperation was also urgently withdrawn by Party A, saying that it needs to be reconsidered whether it is appropriate." ”
Relevant reports show that in 2023, the number of registered companies of MCN institutions in China will exceed 25,400, and CCTV reports that more than ninety percent of Internet celebrities currently have signed MCN institutions, which can be said to have a huge impact on information content business activities.
In order to increase traffic, some MCN agencies will play a "side ball" on the content of bloggers, and will exaggerate some of the facts. "For example, the incident of the girl who was very popular some time ago, her illness is true, but the release time is delayed, and if you blur the expression, it is easy to lead others to think that this is what is happening at the moment. Now, Xu said, they label the video content as fictional or based on real events to avoid misleading viewers.
The reporter interviewed a number of MCN agencies and learned that at present, they are stepping up internal self-examination and strengthening the control of content. Xiao Yang, the founder of "Ximao Media", said that they will regularly organize employees to study and strengthen the assessment of cybersecurity-related content.
According to the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of 'Self-Media'" issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China, website platforms shall promptly discover and strictly address violations of 'self-media', and all "self-media" that produce and publish rumors or stir up hot social incidents that cause a vile impact are to be shut down, included in the platform's blacklist account database, and reported to the internet information department.
According to the Cybersecurity Law and the Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services, online platforms have the responsibility to review and manage the published content, and prohibit the publication of illegal information that endangers national security, spreads rumors, and infringes on the rights and interests of others. However, lawyer Li Tao, director of Yuanwen (Shanghai) Law Firm, said that despite these laws and regulations as a basis, there are still certain loopholes in actual implementation.
Li Tao said that the existing regulations do not clearly define online disinformation, resulting in a gray area in the definition and handling of such cases. For example, the legal boundaries are sometimes unclear when it comes to fabricating and disseminating false stories, which allows misleading information to spread online.
Li Tao suggested that to further improve the relevant laws and regulations, it is necessary to establish a stricter legal accountability mechanism to severely crack down on the fabrication and dissemination of false information, so as to form a strong deterrent. Second, encourage the public to participate in supervision, improve the public's legal awareness, and make everyone a guardian of the authenticity of online information.
In order to clean up cyberspace, the Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Bureau has fully deployed the province's special governance of violations of laws and regulations in online live marketing.
It is understood that by the end of 2024, the Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Bureau will cultivate and guide 300 provincial-level "green live broadcast rooms", further optimize the efficiency of online live broadcast supervision, establish a main body database covering 100,000 active live broadcast rooms above the middle and waist in the province, and monitor no less than 100,000 live broadcasts throughout the year, and strive to achieve a 100% verification and disposal rate of clues on violations of laws and regulations.
Public security is also in action. Previously, the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau said at a press conference that the next step will be to continuously strengthen and continue to promote the special action to crack down on online rumors and online violence, further carry out comprehensive governance, source governance and ecological governance, and create a clear cyberspace for the city's high-quality economic and social development.
At present, the "cat cup" incident has come to an end, but there is still a long way to go to crack down on rumors and clean up cyberspace.
(Chao News)