On various online platforms, short videos are hot, and China has now become the world’s first video user power. But many Internet users may not know that what you see may not be true. In order to have the traffic, some video publishers have gotten the wrong idea, deliberately made up some sensational or miserable story into a short video, under the banner of the so-called real sightings released on the network platform, to increase the flow of eyeballs, and even use the public sympathy to cheat money. Today, we will look at a few cases of fake videos that have recently been cracked by the Chinese police.
At the end of June 2020, a video suddenly caught fire on the Chinese network, according to the video, a small mountain village named Tough Village in Weining County, Guizhou Province, China, there was a strange sound, some even said it was the sound of the dragon, a time, the video exploded on the screen, Weining County, this small mountain village has become a net-commercial village, not only the villagers in eight villages, even Yunnan, Sichuan also rushed over, and some even claimed that they had heard the dragon call at the scene.
With the proliferation of videos, various theories emerged. Some people also think of natural disasters such as earthquakes and landslides, and panic began to appear. So what’s the matter with these calls? Some Chinese netizens also questioned whether the so-called “dragon calls” in this video are true. However, in the face of doubts from netizens, the video publisher ignored it. And as the so-called “dragon call” video spreads more and more widely, more and more people come to watch. No one heard the dragon call, but many people heard another strange sound at the scene. In order to investigate the facts, Weining County organized experts to conduct on-site investigations. No obvious geological activities were found near Jianqiang Village, and there were no obvious earthquakes, mudslides and other precursors. During the investigation, experts made other discoveries.
After investigation, the experts basically determined that the strange sound heard by the people gathered near Jianqiang Village was actually made by a local bird. It is clearly a bird call, how can it become a “dragon call” resounding through the valley? How did the original so-called “dragon call” video come out? The Weining County Public Security Bureau found that the video was faked. The so-called dragon’s cry in the video actually came from an original video of a tiger roaring in a zoo on the Internet in July 2018. Weining netizens Liu Moujiang, Hu Moujiang, Chen Moudan, Zhang Mou and others grafted different scenes of video and audio, coupled with post-sound effect processing, and uploaded them to the Internet. Four people were subject to the administration of the public security organs for spreading rumors. Penalties such as detention and admonition.
In order to attract eyeballs, fake videos were made, but the result was social panic. The methods of fraud were not clever, but the harm was not small.
According to statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center, as of December 2020, there were 927 million online video users in China, accounting for 93.7% of the total Internet users. Among them, 873 million short video users accounted for 88.3% of the total netizens. China has the largest video user group in the world. At the same time, video fraud has also continued to appear, such as “girls going to college to thank their parents” and “hot pot restaurant bosses teach drunk men”, etc., which have been confirmed acting. If some fake videos are meant to defraud attention, attract traffic, and increase fans, then some fake videos are even more naked for direct benefit, to exchange people’s curiosity and even sympathy through fake videos. Into money. Behind these fake videos, professional companies and professional teams even intervened to form an underground industrial chain.
Wang Sixin, Professor of the Communication University of China and Vice President of Beijing Network Law Research Association: It is a technical, team-based, and process-based operation, and it is constantly receiving feedback from the business side, so it has led to continuous renovation and continuous upgrading of scale.
Getting feed from the commercial side is the ultimate goal of most video counterfeiting. Such a video had circulated on the Internet: a young girl in the Liangshan region of Sichuan, China had never seen her mother, her father had died, she could not afford to go to school, her life was miserable, which made people sigh, and many people, while sympathizing, also generously donated money to buy homegrown apples sold by the poor villagers in the Liangshan region in the video. However, at the end of 2020, a netizen sent out a video, which exposed some fake videos shot with deception and violence with the purpose of attracting attention and promotion to bring goods.
According to the revelation video, these videos were shot by a team called Han Wen. In order to achieve the effect, they used eye drops and pinched the girl to artificially create scenes of girls crying. He also lied that he helped dumb mothers and her child sell domestically produced apples, but the ones that were actually sold were the apples on the market. Is that really the case? To this end, the local police also conducted an investigation.
The real name of the planner of the “Han Wen Team” is “Han Wen” Zhao Hongjin, born in 1992, from Shaanxi. He was heavily in debt while working in Shanghai. In 2020, he hired cameramen to form a team and came to Liangshan to start making short videos and set up a video account.
“Han Wen Team” planner Zhao Hongjin: If she doesn’t shed tears, we would use eye drops to drip her on her eyes, which can arouse more social attention and the flow will be higher.
Tears are fake, so is the sad story of the little girl in the video true? With the help of the local police in Liangshan, the reporter found the girl – Ajia. If it were not for the local police to help confirm, it would be hard to believe that the girl in front of me is the same person in the video. Ajia’s teachers told reporters that they were even more surprised than reporters when they saw a video about Ajia’s story taken by the “Han Wen Team” on the Internet.
According to the reporter’s field investigation, Ajia, who is seven years old this year, is not an orphan as claimed in the “Han Wen Team” video and cannot afford to go to school. The real situation is that after Ajia’s parents divorced, she lives with his father, stepmother, and grandmother, and Liangshan introduced free pre-school education for one village and one child in 2016. There is no need to spend a penny. Ajia has been attending school for three years. In order for Ajia to tell a story that does not match his life experience, the “Han Wen team” tricked Ajia into participating in the filming in the name of requiring her to perform in the short drama. In other words, the video of the “Han Wen Team” was completely artificially faked.
The subject was pulled into the camera in a deceitful manner, what the child said was artificially taught, the family situation was fabricated, the shape of the face was designed, and even the scenes during the shooting were changed. When filming, the “Han Wen team” did not use Ajia’s own house, but chose an adobe house in the village that had long been defunct. In order to attract fans and increase traffic, the “Han Wen Team” videos have the most elderly people, crying children, and dilapidated old houses. A video of “Uncle Pomegranate” selling his granddaughter’s beloved puppy in exchange for living expenses is also fake. The girl is a neighbor’s child, and the dog is borrowed temporarily. As for helping mute mothers and sons to sell apples, the truth is that the “Han Wen team” only bought a few thousand catties of apples in this family’s house, but sold hundreds of thousands of catties of apples through live broadcast, and made a profit of 290,000 yuan. Zhao Hongjin’s personal share was 120,000 yuan.
This kind of fraudulent video profit-making behavior not only harms the interests of consumers, but also defrauds the public’s love and consumes social goodwill. In Liangshan, the fake video production team used the guise of poverty alleviation to obtain illegal benefits, while in Shanghai, several aunts encountered scams in the name of charity. A certain video account that was once extremely active on a certain platform has successively released 50 or 60 videos. The male protagonist often sheds tears to help others. According to the data displayed on the platform, he attracted more than 2 million followers in a short period of time. In the name of upholding justice and funding the children, the jewelry was sold live.
Sensational, coupled with tears, touched the hearts of many fans. Starting from December 2020, Ms. Yang has bought so-called ocean stars, diamond rings, beeswax, pearls and other jewelry totaling more than 20,000 yuan. But when the goods arrived, Ms. Yang wanted to cry without tears.
Complainant Ms. Yang: I am embarrassed to say that I spent more than 400 yuan to buy the beeswax, the original price seems to be more than 2900 yuan, the identification staff said it is plastic, and then they did not do the identification for me anymore, saying that there is no need to identify, a look at it would know it’s fake.
After the reporter intervened, it was discovered that similar complaints were not rare, and not only the jewelry was made of plastic, but also the story of the miserable sale of the video account is also fictional.
However, in the face of the complaint, the platform only removed the relevant video account. The owner of the video account simply moved to another platform, changed identity, and continued his emotional story. The victims have nowhere to complain, and there is no way to refund compensation. Professionals pointed out that one of the reasons why video fraud has been repeated is that there are many departments involved, it is difficult to characterize, and the illegal cost of illegal personnel is extremely low.
Wang Sixin, Professor of the Communication University of China and Vice President of Beijing Cyber Law Research Association: There are multiple departments involved. If local public security cases are involved, and local public security is involved, then who will act, in what method, and whether or not they need to cooperate. These problems have existed in practice, but they have not been solved well.
In fact, relevant Chinese authorities have been paying attention to the problems that have arisen in the development of the online video. In 2019, the “Online Short Video Platform Management Regulations” was issued, clarifying that the online short video platform implements a program content first review and then broadcast system. At the end of 2020, China National Radio and Television General Administration issued a notice on strengthening the management of online show live broadcasts and e-commerce live broadcasts. The platform must implement the synchronization of management and construction, and realize accurate warning and timely blocking of illegal and bad content.
The advent of the era of short video and live broadcasting has given birth to new business formats and marketing models, and it has indeed brought new opportunities to become rich. This is understandable. However, there should be a bottom line in everything. A small group of people use public kindness and trust to make money by falsifying, polluting the entire network environment, and hurting the trust of the entire society. In the second half of last year, some Chinese online platforms jointly issued the “Convention on the Self-Discipline of Webcast and Short Video Marketing Platforms”. The platforms will share information on serious illegal anchors and improve the publicity system for handling illegal acts. Only by allowing counterfeiters to pay for their actions can cyberspace become clearer and healthier.
Source: CCTV News