China News Service, August 17. According to the website of the Ministry of Public Security, severely cracking down on new gangster crimes such as public opinion blackmail in accordance with the law is a key task in deepening the special struggle against gangsters and evil. Recently, the cyber security department of the public security organ has followed the lead and cracked down on three cases of online public opinion blackmail targeting the film and television industry, arresting a total of 24 suspects. It effectively safeguarded the order of online communication and the legitimate rights and interests of relevant entities, and effectively cracked down on "black and gray products" on the Internet.
Hangzhou, Zhejiang uncovered a case of extortion using public opinion in the entertainment field
After investigation, it was found that the criminal gang headed by Li and Liao established a cultural media company to control online public opinion in an organized, premeditated and process-based manner. The gang used multiple self-media accounts with millions of fans under its control to piece together, fabricate and publish a large amount of negative information on popular TV dramas, popular variety shows and popular celebrities over a long period of time, creating pressure from public opinion and forcing the victim to proactively contact and purchase so-called "drama protection" services in order to make illegal profits.
The criminal activities related to this gang have seriously disrupted the healthy ecology of the entertainment industry. After the entire case was investigated, the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau launched a centralized network closing operation and arrested 10 suspects. After interrogation, the gang headed by Li and Liao confessed to the illegal and criminal facts, and the case is under further investigation.
A blackmail case involving fabricating "negative information" about new dramas and stars was uncovered in Fuzhou, Fujian
After investigation, Zheng and Huang have been collecting "negative information" about new dramas and celebrities for a long time, controlling accounts on multiple popular online platforms, and concocting and fabricating false content. Whenever popular TV series are broadcast and artists make public activities, the two of them will post negative content through the accounts they control, artificially increasing the popularity of the posts and deliberately creating negative public opinion hot spots. Relevant film and television production crews and artist management teams were worried that negative public opinion would affect the reputation of the work, the reputation of the artist, and commercial income, so they proactively contacted the two people to deal with the negative information. The two people deleted the relevant negative posts after charging a fee.
This behavior seriously disrupts the normal publicity order of the film and television industry, damages the ecology of online public opinion, and infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of film and television producers and artists. At present, the two suspects have been subject to criminal compulsory measures by the public security organs in accordance with the law, and the case is under further investigation.
Heyuan, Guangdong uncovered a blackmail case in the name of "protecting dramas"
After investigation, Li's group registered a cultural communication company and actually controlled multiple WeChat official accounts and Weibo accounts, with a total number of fans exceeding 10 million. The gang has long hired Internet writers to collect and splice various celebrity gossips, and uses artificial intelligence tools to control multiple "big V" accounts it holds to post posts, deliberately creating negative public opinion hot spots during the broadcasts of TV series and variety shows. When the relevant crew took the initiative to contact and negotiate the deletion of the post due to pressure from public opinion, Li Moujun took the opportunity to ask the TV drama broadcast platform or celebrity agency to purchase his so-called "drama protection" service, otherwise they would refuse to delete the negative online post.
The gang's "drama protection" services generally include posting positive promotional posts about the series, deleting negative posts about celebrities posted earlier, and promising not to post negative posts about the series and stars during the broadcast of the series. The group's essence is to extort people by manipulating accounts to create negative public opinion and disguised forced transactions. The victims of this case involve several well-known actors and distributors of many popular TV series. In the early stage, many artists, many brokerage companies or film and television producers have filed lawsuits against the group on the grounds of reputation infringement.
After figuring out the whole case, the Heyuan City Public Security Bureau launched a centralized closing operation and arrested 12 suspects. After interrogation, Li's military gang confessed to the illegal and criminal facts, and the case is under further investigation.
Internet police reminded that cyberspace is not an illegal place, and using online platforms to organize public opinion extortion seriously disrupts the order of the Internet is illegal and criminal. The cyber security departments of public security agencies across the country will continue to maintain a high-pressure and crackdown posture, dig deep into the entire chain of "black and gray industries", and severely punish illegal criminals; at the same time, they call on the majority of netizens to speak out rationally and have civilized discussions to jointly create a clean and upright Internet ecosystem.
