Recently, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued a notice on carrying out the special action of "Clear and Clear, Rectifying 'Self-Media' Without Bottom Line".
In accordance with the arrangement of the 2024 "Qing Lang" series of special action plans, the Cyberspace Administration of China will launch a two-month nationwide special action of "Qing Lang and Rectification of 'Self-Media' No Bottom Line Bo Traffic" from now on.
The notice clarifies the work objectives: to implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important thoughts on cyber power, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and carry out special actions to curb the trend of "self-media" posing and counterfeiting, compress the space for bottomless gambling behavior, and enhance the credibility of information released by "self-media". Tighten and consolidate the main responsibility for the management of information content on website platforms, cut off the chain of interests for "toxic traffic" to attract followers and monetize, expand the scope of access to high-quality information content, and create a clean and positive cyberspace.
Focus on the "self-media" that have no bottom line to create hot spots, create prominent problems such as "information traps" that confuse the real with the false, and mix the real with the false, and strictly rectify the "self-media" that ignore the public interest, violate public order and good customs, disrupt public order, and do whatever it takes for the sake of traffic and lose the bottom line. The key issues of remediation are as follows:
1. Self-directed and self-staged fraud. Posing and publishing false information on current affairs at home and abroad, social and people's livelihood, etc., deceiving the public and disrupting public order. Piecing together and editing online video images, tampering with elements such as the time, place, and person where the incident occurred, to deceive the public with falsehood and truth, and infringe upon the lawful rights and interests of others. Citing old news and old events, failing to accurately and completely explain the full picture of the incident, using the old as the new to deceive the public and damage the network ecology.
2. Unscrupulous means to stir up social hot spots. Pretending to be a party to a hot event, a family member, or a relevant person publishes information to attract the attention of netizens. In response to hot events, the causes, details, and progress of the incident are concocted by means of fiction and distortion, and sensational information such as conspiracy theories is released. Manipulating matrix accounts to disseminate illegal and bad information, create false hotspots, and waste public resources.
3. Set up the topic with partial generalizations. One-sided selection of controversial or negative words, concocted headlines and shocking topics, and tricked the public into clicking and browsing. Outline extreme cases as group phenomena and exaggerate negative narratives to render negativity. Preset narrow positions in topic setting, spread extreme remarks, incite group confrontation, and undermine social consensus.
4. Creating a persona that violates public order and good customs. fabricating bitter stories to create miserable characters, under the banner of helping farmers and charity, using public sympathy to deceive attention and seek benefits. caters to vulgar needs to create a rich personality, and deliberately shows the luxurious life of money, so as to attract fans and attract traffic. Challenge the bottom line of public cognition to create ugly characters, and use pretending to be crazy and stupid, vulgar behavior, etc., to scandalize themselves and win attention.
5. Spamming "new yellow news". Use sensational expression, with eye-catching titles and covers, to produce information content that has incomplete publishing elements, is difficult to distinguish between true and false, is of low quality, and lacks public value.
The notice clarifies the main tasks:
1. Strengthen the management of key platforms and key links. Short video and live-streaming platforms are focusing on increasing the extent of identifying and cleaning up false posing information, and strictly dealing with "self-media" accounts that violate public order and good customs. Platforms that provide information services for hot search lists focus on strengthening the review of information to be listed, and promptly address all topics in a partial manner. Information platforms focus on cleaning up "new yellow news" with headlines, lack of elements, and no public value. Search engine platforms must not present "self-media" bottom-line traffic information on search results pages, search association words, etc.
2. Strengthen the whole-process management of "self-media" accounts. Platforms shall verify the real identity information of accounts that have opened for-profit authority with identity card numbers, etc. Strengthen the dynamic verification of account names and other account information, strictly review newly registered accounts and accounts whose names have been changed after the occurrence of hot incidents, and close all accounts that are found to be counterfeit. Strictly enforce the regulations on the number of accounts registered for "one person, one number, one enterprise, two accounts", and promptly dispose of those who are clearly informed that they are small and that the actual person appearing on camera is the same person.
3. Strengthen the labeling and display of information sources. Platforms should require "self-media" to accurately indicate the source of the information when publishing relevant information such as current affairs, public policies, and social events at home and abroad. Where information is generated using AI or other technologies, it must be clearly marked as technology-generated. Where the publication contains fictional, deducing, or other content, the fictitious label must be clearly added. The platform shall display the information source or label marked by "self-media" in a conspicuous position.
4. Improve traffic management measures. Complete traffic management rules, and information that should be labeled as "self-media" without a source must not be presented in key links. Information that is maliciously labeled is to be handled as false information. For information that is suspected to have no bottom-line blog traffic, traffic restriction measures shall be employed in advance, and the growth of interactive data such as comments and likes shall be suspended in light of the circumstances. According to the WeChat public account of Netinfo China
Media Voice
Under the punishment warning, the behavior of fake posing and hype still appears from time to time, and you will sing and I will appear on the stage, reckless and unscrupulous.
The moral bottom line cannot be stepped on, the legal "red line" cannot be touched, and the crooked trend of self-media fraud must be stopped!
- People's Daily
People have long hated this kind of outrageous, bottomless, and unsightly rumor-mongering behavior, and they must be severely punished in accordance with the law. Only by giving him a taste of the bitter fruit can he remember the lesson and make others who try to spread rumors afraid.
-- CNR
The farce of "lying to you without negotiating" not only pollutes the clarity of cyberspace, but also interferes with the order of public life on a larger scale.
- Workers' Daily
If the wind of counterfeiting is allowed to spread, more and more "homework drifts" will inevitably be produced that rumors have spread all over the Internet. These bloody contents wantonly occupy and consume communication resources, drowning and obscuring those truly valuable public issues.
——Beijing Daily
From carrying out "posed charity" and "performative charity" in the name of public welfare charity, to creating "tragic dramas" through rumors and hype, to ignoring the dignity of those seeking help, infringing on the privacy of others and other vulgar and illegal means to concoct "hot spots...... Posing short videos is like a cancer in the online world, involving people's livelihood, education, social security, morality and ethics and other fields.
——China Youth Daily
These sensational cases are all fake!
Case 1: Fabricating Qin Lang's winter vacation homework in Paris
During this year's Spring Festival, the Internet celebrity blogger "@Thurman Cat Cup", which has tens of millions of fans, posted a video saying that he was handed two first-grade winter vacation homework books left in the toilet by a waiter in a hotel in Paris. The blogger said that he would bring the homework back to China and return it to Qin Lang's children. Topics such as "Qin Lang Paris lost his winter vacation homework" quickly appeared on the hot searches on various platforms and continued to ferment.
On April 12 this year, the Hangzhou police reported that after investigation, in order to attract fans and drain traffic, "Thurman Cat Cup" and his colleague Xue (male, 30 years old) jointly planned and fabricated a series of video scripts of "Picking Up the Lost Homework Book of Primary School Student Qin Lang", and then purchased the winter vacation homework book online, took selfies with mobile phones, made related videos, and spread them to multiple online platforms, causing a bad impact. The public security organs have imposed administrative penalties on the two and their companies in accordance with the law.
Case 2: Disseminate a photo of the "Handan student's skull".
In the murder case of Wang Moumou, a first-year junior high school student in Handan, Hebei Province, the cruelty of the three suspects with an average age of 13 years old was outrageous and caused great public indignation. According to the CCTV news client, bloggers on multiple platforms such as "Wenwen Wants to Be Happy", "Mai Enli", and "Labra Butterfly" posted photos of the victim's skull, and analyzed the case based on the picture. After the CCTV "Rule of Law Online" reporter verified with the relevant departments and confirmed, the online photo had nothing to do with the murder of a junior high school student in Handan.
Case 3: "A female teacher who cheated on a student" is live
It was reported on the Internet that a female high school teacher in Shanghai had an improper relationship with her 16-year-old student. On February 19, Shanghai No. 2 Middle School issued an official notice, stating that the school attaches great importance to it and immediately began an investigation, and suspended the female teacher involved as soon as possible.
After the incident aroused social attention, a number of social accounts suspected of "the female teacher involved in the live broadcast" appeared, imitating the female teacher involved in the live broadcast and earning rewards from their clothing and makeup; In addition, some accounts deliberately used the photos of the news parties as their avatars, and deliberately included words such as "Zhang ×" and "Shanghai Teacher Zhang ×" in their nicknames to confuse the public.
Case 4: Instant noodles for the "hospitalized mother-in-law".
In December last year, a blogger named "Sister Lin Meat Sandwich Bun" in Liaocheng, Shandong Province, posted a series of videos of "eating instant noodles for her hospitalized mother-in-law". In the video, an elderly man is eating instant noodles, while the blogger himself is eating meat because his mother-in-law gave her instant noodles when she was confined. Afterwards, the blogger admitted that these video pictures were fake, and that her mother-in-law was actually her mother, and her purpose was to "increase her followers".
On December 17 last year, the Liaocheng police in Shandong Province issued a police report, after investigation, in order to attract traffic and win attention, Lin Moumou designed his own scene, fabricated false information, and asked his mother to cooperate with the video, and spread it on the Internet, causing a bad social impact. The public security organs imposed an administrative punishment of 5 days of public security detention on Lin Moumou in accordance with law, and took measures to permanently shut down his online account for spreading rumors.
Case 5: Fictitious "Offering a massage with a tip"
A little boy with a milky voice gradually became popular on a short video platform. In the original video, he said that he was a young man in his 20s, and because he was looking for a job in the local area, he wanted to go out and see the world. As a result, I repeatedly hit a wall when looking for a job, so I traveled to many places and "strayed" into the informal bathing industry through a friend's introduction. He said in the video that it was the pressure of life and high tips and gifts that made him fail to keep the bottom line in the face of the temptation of money and "go to the sea". Most netizens left kind messages in the comment area, reminding him to abide by ethics and seek help from the relevant departments.
In February this year, the Guangdong Provincial Internet Reporting Center issued a notice saying that after an investigation by relevant departments, Yang Moumou, the owner of the "Cream Diary", posted a number of videos on Douyin and other online platforms in order to attract attention, attract traffic, and bring goods through live broadcasts, fabricating false plots, and fabricating the fact that he provided massage services to others and collected tips, causing adverse social impact.
Case 6: Deliberately selling miserably and telling a story about finding relatives
An Internet celebrity named "Did the boy looking for relatives cry tonight" became popular and quickly attracted more than 100,000 fans. The content of his first video was about finding his biological parents. According to his account, he was abducted and trafficked to Yulin, Guangxi Province between 2000 and 2002, and then resold four times, and his life was very miserable. Soon, a large number of "mom fans" poured into his account and sympathized with him. Huang seized the opportunity and started live broadcasting, including skin care products, kitchen supplies, and even sanitary napkins, which was clearly to make money for women.
In January last year, some netizens reported that this person was sentenced for rape in 2017, believing that such a person as an Internet celebrity, opening live broadcasts, bringing goods to make money, will also bring bad value orientation to society. Currently, the account has been banned. Comprehensive CCTV, etc