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In recent years, some criminals have targeted social hot spots and emergencies, and have spread "clickbait" articles on the Internet by making up stories out of nothing or splicing them maliciously. As long as someone clicks on them, they will become the target of the "black industry" on the Internet. Recently, the Suining police in Sichuan Province cracked down on a cybercrime gang that maliciously diverted traffic for "clickbait" and provided technical assistance. A total of 7 people involved in the case were arrested and 7,966 harmful information was cleared.

According to the police in Suining, Sichuan, in April 2023, the police in Daying County, Suining, Sichuan, found during an online patrol that a large number of shocking and eye-catching "title party" articles appeared on the Internet, and these links were widely circulated in the WeChat groups and Moments of local citizens. Under the police investigation, Xia, a local citizen of Suining who frequently posted and forwarded "title party" articles, came into the police's sight and was summoned for investigation in accordance with the law. According to Xia's confession, by chance, she saw someone offering part-time job information on the Internet. All she needed to do was to move her fingers to forward the link to the article. The more traffic she clicked, the more she would be paid. According to the police investigation, as of April 2023, Xia had posted a total of 23 "title party" links to articles, earning more than 50,000 yuan in advertising revenue.

So how do Xia and other cybercrime gangs trick netizens? After investigation, the police found that the profit-making routine of "title party" online articles can be roughly divided into three steps: first, find some hot events, hot social topics, etc. as the introduction of the online article; then draft a shocking, sensational or sympathetic title. The publisher does not care whether the content of the online article is true, and some are even full of advertisements; then develop downlines to share and forward a lot, deceive netizens to click and obtain traffic, and then earn advertising revenue.

In order to improve forwarding efficiency and maximize the spread of content, these criminal gangs purchase small programs that generate "clickbait" articles online to gain more traffic. In order to evade platform supervision, users even automatically change the URL of the "clickbait" article link every time they forward it, making it impossible to completely block the illegal link.

So, who is the developer of this software?

The police said that this mini program is actually a "clickbait" online article platform with an automatic generation function. Various "clickbait" online article templates are pre-made. When using it, you only need to change the title to directly generate the online article link, and the content inside is not important to the forwarder. In the process of in-depth investigation, the police also discovered a network black industry chain that specializes in concocting "clickbait" online articles to defraud traffic and obtain advertising revenue. In order to evade supervision, the developers of the mini program also added an "anti-blocking" function to achieve the purpose of evading platform supervision.

Based on the clues they had, the police quickly locked onto Chengdu Internet Technology Co., Ltd., the developer and operator of the "title party" online article production software, and its legal representative Zhang. In June 2023, the task force organized more than 20 police officers to go to Shandong, Jiangxi, Guangdong and other places to arrest seven suspects including Zhang and Wang.

According to police investigation, Zhang's criminal gang provided a large number of "clickbait" online article templates and automatically generated functions, and then sold the right to use them at prices ranging from 2,000 yuan to 3,500 yuan. As of June 2023, the number of users who purchased the software developed by Zhang reached 1,293, and a large number of "clickbait" online articles loaded with illegal advertising information were spread online. Although this "clickbait" online article production and dissemination method may bring economic benefits to the producers in the short term, in the long run, it undermines the authenticity and credibility of online information and damages the health of the network ecology.

Regarding these "clickbait" articles that attract traffic, some netizens think that if they accidentally clicked in, they can just quit and it is not a big deal. Little do they know that similar "clickbait" articles are extremely harmful. How to rectify and crack down on this black industry chain from the root? What is the difficulty? In this regard, lawyer You Yunting said: These "clickbait" articles are not just a problem of one article, but a problem of a black industry chain. You Yunting said that behind the "clickbait" articles is a huge "gray industry" group, among which some are responsible for content production, some are responsible for technical processing of links, and others are responsible for making corresponding pornographic gambling websites, the main purpose of which is to "acquire customers". If the content of the "clickbait" articles involves pornography, gambling, fraud and other content, it will not only pollute the network environment, but may also be suspected of criminal offenses.

You Yunting believes that for these existing problems, platform companies should play a better role as the main body, increase technology investment, and strengthen content review, so as to form a technical force to combat the "black industry" on the Internet and make it impossible for it to enter. At the same time, we should strengthen cooperation, form a joint force, and weave a three-dimensional anti-counterfeiting network, so that the "black industry" on the Internet has nowhere to hide. In addition, functional departments also need to continue to strengthen law enforcement, and carry out regular supervision and governance combining "points, lines and surfaces" to eradicate the soil for the survival of the "black industry" on the Internet from the root.

Kankan News Reporter: Peng Xiaoyan, Chen Yuhui, You Wei

Editor: Chen Yuhui You Wei

Editor: Peng Xiaoyan