Earn pocket money by praising and splashing sewage —— Revealing the rivers and lakes of the part-time ＂water army＂ in the entertainment circle
Xinhua News Agency, Guangzhou, November 1st Title: Earn pocket money by brushing praise and splashing sewage — — Revealing the part-time "water army" rivers and lakes in the entertainment circle
Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter Yang Shuxin
At 8 o’clock in the evening, a film and television propaganda task was released in the WeChat group. Jiang Rui (pseudonym) quickly knocked down the reply in the group, and then she logged into her Weibo account and sent out the copy and pictures that had already been prepared in the group. "xx’s acting skills are really infectious and emotional communication is quite in place." Attach a topic entry as the focus of publicity at the end. After the group owner reviewed the task delivery, Jiang Rui successfully earned two yuan in income. This is the main content of Jiang Rui’s part-time job — — Be an entertainment "water army".
Brush praise, write promotional soft articles, and splash sewage … … Some can earn thousands of dollars a month. A survey by Xinhua Viewpoint reporter found that the network "water army" wandering in the gray area are mainly part-time workers who take orders online and work part-time as "water army" to earn pocket money.
A few months ago, Jiang Rui was introduced to join a part-time group. After simple training, she became a "water army". Jiang Rui said, the main job is to publicize the star trends and film and television works in Weibo, and the single person will send the task, and the part-time "water army" in the group will grab the order, and then send the written publicity copy in Weibo. "As long as you have a social account, you can earn this money."
Weibo screenshot
According to industry insiders, the network "Water Army" has both machine accounts and real-life accounts. The machine account is commonly known as the "zombie number", and the homepage is usually a batch of advertisements, which is easy to cause "fake at a glance". The real account is more popular in online hype because of its more personalized expression.
Qin Xiaoyan (a pseudonym), a staff member of a marketing company in Guangzhou, told reporters that some "water army" companies are actually "small workshops" of several people, collecting a large number of real-life accounts. Because of the high cost of hiring full-time "water army", they aimed at part-time groups.
"You can earn a few cents to a few dollars by clicking a praise and clockwork comments. This kind of flexible time and light workload ‘ Part-time job ’ It is very attractive to young people who want to earn some pocket money. " Zhang Xiaoxiao, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of Jinan University, said.
Guangzhou citizen Liu Fangfang (pseudonym) said that many friends have joined the part-time "water army" group. "At first, someone saw the recruitment on Weibo. In order to make money, several of us followed her into the group ‘ Water army ’ 。”
The reporter searched for keywords such as "promotion" and "data maintenance" on QQ, and found that there are a large number of QQ groups providing "water army" purchase services, covering various social platforms.
In addition, according to a recruiter of the "water army", pulling people’s heads can also be a commission. This recruitment method makes the part-time "water army" community viral.
Xiao Yajing, procurator of the First Procuratorate of Guangzhou Baiyun District Procuratorate, said that the process of purchasing the "Water Army" service generally requires multi-level circulation, and the profit at each level is to earn the difference. Most part-time workers who do promotion are located at the bottom of this gray industrial chain.
Zhang Xiaoxiao believes that the "water army" controls hot search and traffic in the online world, concocting false public opinion, which will affect the public’s judgment and choice, but will damage the rights of others, affect social equity and do serious harm. Everyone should have a clear understanding of this and resolutely refuse to get paid in this unfair way.
In-group screenshot
In addition, people in the legal profession reminded that part-time "water army" may also have hidden legal risks.
Xiao Yajing said that if the part-time "water army" makes inappropriate remarks and infringes on the personal and property rights of others, it may violate the Law on Public Security Administration Punishment, and if the circumstances are serious, it may even violate the criminal law. The alleged crimes include the crime of network-based provocation, defamation, intentional dissemination of false information, and illegal use of information networks. As an organizer, if you organize and solicit other people to spread false information, you may also be suspected of the above crimes, and if you play a major role in joint crimes, you will be treated as the principal offender.
Over the years, the "water army" is like psoriasis in cyberspace, which has existed for a long time but is difficult to cure.
Qin Xiaoyan said that the "water army" brought traffic to the platform to a certain extent. For the sake of heat, the platform sometimes "closes one eye" in terms of supervision. At the same time, the part-time "Water Army" represents a real-life account, which is more difficult at the monitoring level than the machine account, and the platform is "unwilling to manage" and "not easy to manage".
Zhang Xiaoxiao believes that strengthening industry supervision is the key to cut off the industrial chain of "Water Army". On the technical level, the platform should strengthen the identification and supervision of abnormal forwarding, comments and other network activities. Xiao Yajing suggested that the administrative supervision of Internet companies should be strengthened, and the Internet user real-name registration system should be implemented.
The experts interviewed said that the current "water army" industry has formed a complete gray or even black industrial chain, but because the links between the various chains are not close, the task is broken up and released on the information network, and the network part-time personnel go to "claim". This cross-regional and decentralized nature has increased the difficulty of cracking down.
In-group screenshot
Xiao Yajing said that the virtual identity of netizens in the network and the uncertainty of the theme also provided a protective coat for the "water army", which made it difficult and uncontrollable for the regulatory authorities to determine the behavior subject when the network "water army" case occurred.
"Network ‘ Water army ’ The activities are carried out by relying on the network platform, so the information released and the fund transactions are all electronic evidence. Collecting electronic evidence requires strong professional knowledge and skills. At present, the information sharing mechanism between investigation organs or relevant regulatory authorities and network enterprises needs to be improved, and it is difficult to ensure timely, efficient and standardized electronic evidence collection, which has affected the investigation of ‘ Water army ’ Investigation. " Xiao Yajing said.
The interviewed experts suggested that relevant laws and regulations should be further improved, the supervision ability of relevant departments on the network platform should be enhanced, and the crackdown on the "water army" should be intensified. For the network "water army" suspected of committing crimes, we must dig deep into the industrial chain and cut off the interest chain. "At the same time, we must strengthen the civil law protection of network rights and interests, and increase the compensation and punishment for network infringement." Xiao Yajing said. (Participating in writing: Liu Qi, Yi Xiaoyan)