How to effectively regulate traffic fraud? ,Multiple departments launched a heavy blow

Recently, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China launched a two-month nationwide special campaign to "clear the air and rectify the bottomless gambling of 'self-media' traffic". The goal is to curb the trend of "self-media" fake photos and reduce the behavior of bottomless gambling. space to enhance the credibility of information released by “self-media”.

There are often hundreds of thousands of people online at live broadcasts but there is little interaction, and the products are high-priced and low-quality but have rave reviews... In the online world where "traffic is king", strange phenomena occur frequently. In recent years, network traffic fraud has become more and more serious, and there is a trend of large-scale and industrialization. Network traffic fraud not only harms the interests of the majority of netizens, but also seriously damages the network ecology. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized that in order to "promote the formation of a good network ecology", traffic fraud must be effectively regulated.

The so-called network traffic refers to data indicators supported by user identity authentication information to describe the number of users accessing the platform or software and the amount of network information browsed by users. In the era of "attention economy", traffic is an important criterion for measuring the ability of specific online content to attract attention. For ordinary netizens, traffic reflects their opinions, interests and preferences; for content creators, traffic is a key criterion to measure the quality of their creations; for public events, traffic reflects the current public opinion... It is believed that traffic has become the data foundation on which the Internet depends.

In recent years, with the development and progress of network technology, the Internet has become increasingly closely connected with social and economic entities. Online shopping is deeply integrated with various creative platforms. The number of exposures, sales volume display, product reviews, etc. can directly affect consumers' consumption choices. Correspondingly, typical network traffic fraud forms such as group control, false advertising, false transactions for profit, induced consumption, and malicious suppression have emerged, covering many fields such as video and text creation, online shopping, and celebrity support. , affecting or even infringing on the vital interests of various groups such as advertisers, shopping platforms, online merchants, ordinary consumers, etc. Its social harm is self-evident.

As early as 2019, the "Network Information Content Ecological Governance Regulations" clearly prohibited traffic fraud: "Network information content service users, network information content producers, and network information content service platforms shall not implement traffic fraud or traffic fraud through manual or technical means. Hijacking and falsely registering accounts, illegally trading accounts, manipulating user accounts and other behaviors undermine the order of the online ecosystem. "In 2020, the Supreme People's Court included "punishing network traffic fraud" in a work report; in 2021, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China " The chaos in the "rice circle" is especially the attack of the "traffic-only theory"; in 2022, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China's "Qingming" series of operations will "combine traffic fraud and black public relations" as one of the 10 aspects of special rectification. Under the guidance of the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important thoughts on cyber power, in 2023, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China deployed the special action of “Clearing and Regulating the Order of Internet Communication in Key Traffic Links”; Public Security Bureau Cybersecurity The department relies on the "Clean Network" series of special operations to focus on investigating and cracking down on cases of using "network trolls" to carry out traffic fraud... In the new era and new journey, how to more effectively regulate network traffic fraud has become a comprehensive network management system. , important issues to promote the formation of a good network ecology.

We have to admit that regulating network traffic fraud is a complex project. Within the platform, business models such as bidding ranking and paid promotion have existed for a long time. Some leading anchors, creators, merchants and the platform have a cooperative and symbiotic relationship. It seems that there is insufficient motivation to rely solely on platform regulations. At the same time, due to the relative anonymity of the Internet and the existence of the principle of whoever claims and who must provide evidence in civil litigation, it is often difficult for victims to sue, and the cost of litigation is high, and many people give up on defending their rights. In the process of law enforcement by administrative agencies, they often face practical problems such as weak penalties, insufficient law enforcement force, and relative lag in relevant regulations. In terms of criminal regulation, data gradually exists apart from computer information systems, there are endless types of traffic fraud behaviors, and there are disputes over the determination of the relationship between related behaviors, all of which have brought certain challenges to the application of criminal law.

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized that we should adhere to the comprehensive rule of law and promote the construction of China under the rule of law. The Internet is not a place outside the law. The rule of law is an effective means to maintain a clean environment on the Internet. It is imperative to strengthen the rule of law and maintain a good Internet ecology. In the governance of the network society, we must adhere to the spirit of the rule of law, use legal thinking, comprehensively promote scientific legislation, strict law enforcement, fair justice, and law-abiding by all people, and integrate the entire process and chain of traffic collection, processing, and display into the rule of law to effectively improve Network governance effectiveness.

First, better leverage the warning and preventive role of administrative law enforcement on online platforms. In recent years, Internet giants such as Alibaba and Meituan have been fined heavily for violating administrative regulations. Such administrative penalties not only directly curb violations of laws and regulations, but also form a powerful preventive warning effect and promote the healthy development of the Internet industry. At present, the role of administrative law enforcement in the governance of Internet society is still relatively limited. In the future, efforts should be made to improve professionalism and sensitivity, strengthen the construction of professional teams, and build a co-construction and co-management system and mechanism with Internet platforms to achieve timely discovery and effective supervision. , continuously improve the transparency, fairness, and effectiveness of administrative law enforcement, and build a law enforcement system that can not only prevent the expansion of harm immediately, but also form long-term benign guidance.

Second, continue to increase the intensity of criminal crackdowns on traffic fraud. In judicial practice, downstream criminal activities such as false volume brushing to obtain platform subsidy cashback, false advertising, and smear and hype by using traffic brushing as a means have been severely cracked down by the criminal law. The defendants were respectively sentenced to the crime of theft, false advertising, Defamation, aiding information network criminal activities and other crimes. For the behavior of providing accounts, technology and teaching criminal methods, in practice, crimes of infringement of citizens’ personal information, credit card-related crimes, and computer information system crimes are generally used to regulate. At the same time, there are also cases in practice where specialized organizations that commit traffic fraud are punished with the crime of illegal business operations. It can be seen that our country has explored a relatively effective criminal regulation method for criminal activities related to traffic fraud.

Third, promptly promote the revision and improvement of laws and regulations. With the rapid development of new technologies and applications such as big data and artificial intelligence, traffic fraud has taken on new forms and models, but relevant laws and regulations still have certain lags and blank areas. The most typical thing is that with the rapid development of big data and the accelerated iteration of generative artificial intelligence, "algorithm black boxes" have become more common, and it has become increasingly difficult to supervise the collection, processing, and display chain of traffic data. How to balance the relationship between full utilization of traffic data and timely supervision has become a key issue in the field of network social governance. In this regard, we must give full play to the guiding function of the law, summarize the behavior patterns and governance experiences of traffic fraud, and transform them into scientific, concise, and highly operational laws and regulations, erect "signposts" for traffic utilization, and prevent traffic fraud. The establishment of a "no-fly zone" provides a solid institutional foundation and strong normative guarantee for law enforcement and justice, and provides effective guidance for the healthy development of the network society.

Fourth, continue to strengthen netizens’ awareness of rights, law-abiding awareness, and prevention awareness. Traffic fraud takes many forms, and laws and regulations have natural lags. Therefore, improving the quality of netizens is also an important part of optimizing the network ecosystem. The reason why traffic fraud develops rapidly, and even becomes large-scale, industrialized, and chain-oriented, is fundamentally because it is profitable. If netizens paid more attention to the level of creation and product quality, and resolutely resisted vulgar works and inferior products directed by false traffic, online traffic fraud would not be so popular. Therefore, it is still necessary to focus on the education of legal concepts and moral beliefs to cultivate netizens to be "owners" of judgment and choice, "gatekeepers" of their own rights, and "scavengers" of the network environment, so that they will not be coerced by traffic and do not They are accomplices in counterfeiting, actively safeguard legitimate rights and interests, and work together to purify the online environment.

In addition, continuing to urge online platforms to actively fulfill their main responsibilities is also a top priority. As a collector, processor, and presenter of traffic data, the network platform has innate technical advantages; as a direct implementer of laws and a direct maker of platform rules, it has inherent dominant advantages. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure the "double insurance" of the rule of law and technology, consolidate platform responsibilities, ensure that network platforms remain neutral in the process of collecting, processing, and displaying traffic, and continue to display high-quality content, accurate information, and true evaluations to users. For traffic fraud within the platform, the platform should constantly monitor and accurately crack down on it; for traffic promotion and bidding rankings within the platform rules, the platform should proactively prompt and clearly indicate it; for users whose legitimate rights are damaged, the platform should actively help and stop it in a timely manner. damage. In short, the network platform must be cultivated into a resolute enforcer of laws and regulations, a resolute opponent of traffic fraud, a resolute protector of user rights and interests, and a builder of real traffic mechanisms, thereby promoting the healthy development of the overall network environment.

True traffic is the basis for the existence, operation, and development of today's networks, and we must take a heavy blow against network traffic fraud. The rule of law is an effective means to regulate traffic fraud. We must use the sword of the rule of law to cut off the chain of counterfeiting, use the rule of law to improve the quality of netizens, use the weight of the rule of law to consolidate platform responsibilities, use the results of the rule of law to optimize the network environment, and build cyberspace into a platform for the majority of netizens. common spiritual home.