54 people caught! Police urgently remind that multiple million fan internet celebrities in Sichuan have been arrested

On September 20th, a press conference was held in Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province, to report on a series of online celebrity live streaming sales cases, with "Liangshan Qubu", "Zhao Linger", and "Liangshan Mengyang" as the main representative teams, using short videos to falsely promote and promote "Daliangshan specialties", producing and selling counterfeit products, seeking profits, and committing illegal crimes.

The Red Star News reporter learned from the meeting that this is the first series of "Internet celebrity economy" chaos cases cracked by the Liangshan Prefecture Public Security Bureau in the province. At the meeting, the Public Security Bureau of Liangshan Prefecture, the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Liangshan Prefecture, the Commerce Bureau of Liangshan Prefecture, and the Internet Information Office of Liangshan Prefecture Committee reported on the false advertising case and related information of "internet celebrity anchors".

▲ suspect captured by the police

MCN institutions are looking for "internet celebrity seedlings" to incubate

Design scripts to harvest traffic and monetize it

According to Lu Xiaomei, a member of the Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Liangshan Public Security Bureau, in May this year, the Liangshan Public Security Bureau received a notice from the State Market Supervision Bureau that it discovered that internet celebrities "Liangshan Qubu" and "Zhao Linger" were falsely promoting during live streaming sales, with a huge amount of money involved and suspected of committing a crime. After receiving clues, the public security organs quickly established a special task force to carry out investigations.

According to the investigation by the Zhaojue County Public Security Bureau, in July 2022, Zhang, the person in charge of Chengdu Xiaoyu Zhunong Media Co., Ltd., entered the hinterland of Liangshan and carefully incubated "internet celebrity seedlings" such as individual business owners Zhao and A Ri.

The company designs scripts and scripts, specifically selecting uninhabited production buildings and dilapidated buildings as the background for live streaming, creating a "Daliangshan Original Ecology" persona, and posting short videos on short video platforms featuring scenes such as "Encountering", "Grabbing Rice", and "Assisting Farmers" to attract attention and traffic, incubating millions of fan internet celebrity accounts such as "Liangshan Qubu" and "Zhao Linger".

▲ Internet celebrities "Liangshan Qubu" and "Zhao Linger"

After earning traffic, taking advantage of the situation, by opening online stores and live streaming sales, under the banner of "assisting agriculture" and "high-quality original ecology", counterfeit the trademark of "Daliangshan characteristic agricultural products", and purchase agricultural and sideline products such as honey and walnuts at low prices from food companies in Chengdu, Nanjing, and other places, and sell them nationwide with substandard and fake products. Counterfeit products have been sold to more than 20 provinces and cities across the country, with a involved amount exceeding ten million yuan.

Hiring an online navy to create the illusion of hot selling products and grabbing orders

Inducing consumers to make purchases

While investigating the "Liangshan Qubu" and "Zhao Ling'er" cases, in June of this year, the Liangshan public security organs also discovered that internet celebrities "Liangshan Mengyang" and "Liangshan Aze" falsely promoted during live streaming sales, involving a huge amount of money and suspected of committing crimes.

According to the investigation by the Zhaojue County Public Security Bureau, since 2020, Tang, the person in charge of Chengdu Aowei Cultural Media Co., Ltd., has incubated millions of "internet celebrities" Axi and Adi on short video platforms through scripts, filming, and other means.

▲ Internet celebrity "Liangshan Mengyang"

Since March 2021, the gang has purchased agricultural products such as snow swallows, safflower, Fritillaria, and morel at low prices from Chengdu, Kunming, and other places. They sell them through online live streaming under the banner of "Liangshan local specialties", "agricultural assistance", and "original ecology". During this period, Tang, along with Li, Guo, and others, hired an online army to create the illusion of hot selling products and grabbing orders in the live broadcast room, inducing consumers to make purchases. The amount involved in the case exceeded ten million yuan.

Lu Xiaomei stated that the above-mentioned illegal and criminal activities are well organized, highly deceptive, and involve a wide range of areas. They have formed a gray industrial chain of counterfeiting and sales, including front-end character building, incubation of internet celebrities, mid-range script shooting, e-commerce operation, and supply and monetization of agricultural products and traffic at the end.

Capture 54 suspect

Among them, there are 11 internet celebrity anchors involved in the case

Destroy 5 MCN institutions

Lu Xiaomei said that up to now, 54 suspect have been arrested in this series of cases, 18 people have been approved to be arrested, 5 MCN institutions have been destroyed, 14 companies involved have been seized, more than 20 tons of honey raw materials involved have been seized, more than 4700 bottles of counterfeit "Daliang Mountain native honey" finished products, more than 50000 pieces of commodity packaging, 3 sets of production equipment have been approved, and more than 5 million yuan of funds involved have been frozen.

At present, the relevant accounts involved in the case have been banned. Lu Xiaomei introduced that by investigating this series of cases, the industrialization operation mode of the internet celebrity team's "attracting fans, attracting traffic, promoting sales, and monetizing" was clarified, highlighting the profit chain of "upstream suppliers, packaging and attracting traffic teams, and false agricultural anchors" in attracting fans and promoting sales. A set of practical experience in cracking down on similar cases with Liangshan characteristics was summarized and refined.

Lu Xiaomei stated that Liangshan Public Security will deepen the Ministry of Public Security's "Hundred Day Anti Rumor" and Liangshan Public Security's "Li Jian 2023" special action, work together with relevant departments to strictly crack down on online illegal crimes, and address prominent issues such as "tragic marketing" and "false agricultural assistance" that disrupt the online space. We will crack down on them together to open up the way and promote governance, and make every effort to purify the online environment.

The internet is not a lawless place, and public security organs will resolutely investigate and punish violations of the legal red line in accordance with the law.

The Liangshan police remind that self media is not a "private land" for arbitrarily harvesting traffic. Self media practitioners should not spread rumors, attract traffic, illegally make profits, and disrupt the order of the online space. I hope that netizens can actively report online rumors and criminal clues, and work together with the police to maintain good online order.