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China Economic Weekly reporter Guo Zhiqiang

On August 20, a Weibo account with 290,000 followers issued an apology letter to Xiaomi for spreading rumors such as "Xiaomi is controlled by foreign capital". The day before, a Weibo user publicly apologized to Huawei for spreading rumors such as "Huawei hired Internet trolls to discredit Xiaomi".

In recent years, various parts of the country have taken intensive measures to optimize the business environment and boost the confidence of private enterprises in development. However, some online accounts have discredited the image of enterprises and interfered with their normal operations by publishing false and negative information and engaging in "clickbait", which has brought negative energy to the development of the private economy.

In fact, a clean and healthy business network environment is also a productive force. With a good business network environment, entrepreneurs can run their businesses with peace of mind and focus on development.Punishing the behavior of "pressing buttons to harm enterprises" in accordance with the law is the key to creating a good business environment and boosting the development confidence of private entrepreneurs.

We-media maliciously "touching" companies

Last September, the news that "false news such as Liu Qiangdong cashing out and being splashed with paint were circulated online, and the original platform has apologized" attracted widespread social attention; earlier online rumors such as "Cao Dewang blasted Tesla's salary increase" were also maliciously processed and spread.

Coincidentally, the speech delivered by Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, at the company's annual meeting in early 2024 was also maliciously edited. Many self-media fabricated articles such as "The Chairman of Changan Automobile blasted BMW and Mercedes-Benz as backward products", and there were signs of directing online public opinion towards the direction of complacency of domestically produced cars.

It is not uncommon for such domestic entrepreneurs to be maliciously "scammed" by self-media.

The head of a national supermarket chain suffered greatly from this. From early April 2022 to April this year, due to a major financial crisis in the company, the company entered the judicial reorganization process. Some rumors spread in a fission-like manner through "exposing black materials", "throwing dirty water" and "riding on hot spots", causing great impact on the company.

The brand manager of a listed company in central China said that some self-media are keen on speculating on the private lives of company founders, making up family stories about entrepreneurs, slandering entrepreneurs for "running away", and using the names of entrepreneurs to make insulting and defamatory remarks, in order to stir up heated discussions and criticisms among the majority of netizens.

Not only that,The real image of some private entrepreneurs can easily be "bound" and exploited by online public opinion, triggering stress among upstream and downstream suppliers, disrupting the operations of some private enterprises, and affecting the normal development of the enterprises.

Punish "key-pressing harm to enterprises" according to law, no time to delay

We cannot afford to delay or wait to punish online violence and "keystrokes that harm businesses" in accordance with the law.

On August 1, 2023, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Notice on the Implementation of Several Recent Measures to Promote the Development of the Private Economy", proposing to crack down on "online black mouths" and "black industrial chains" that deliberately hype and spread rumors to discredit private enterprises and private entrepreneurs in accordance with the law.

In September of the same year, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Punishing Cyber ​​Violence Crimes in accordance with the Law", which clearly required severe punishment of cyber violence crimes in accordance with the law, established a long-term governance mechanism, fundamentally reduced the occurrence of cyber violence, and created a clear cyberspace.

In March this year, the Cyberspace Administration of China deployed a special campaign called "Clear and Optimize the Business Network Environment - Rectify the Chaos of Infringing Information Involving Enterprises" to concentrate on rectifying the chaos of infringing information involving enterprises. The campaign aims to rectify problems such as smearing and defaming the image and reputation of enterprises and entrepreneurs without factual basis, fabricating and spreading false information, extorting illegal profits, interfering with the normal production and operation order of enterprises, and maliciously hyping public information involving enterprises.

Relevant laws and regulations have been increasingly effective in combating false information involving enterprises, but there are still pain points in combating online rumors. Some enterprises have reported that the rumormongers are personal self-media or competitors hiding in the dark. The other party can just open their mouths to spread rumors, but it is troublesome and costly to take action to protect their rights and deal with rumors. As a result, online rumors involving enterprises appear from time to time, and enterprises suffer greatly from them.

Many business leaders who were deeply involved in "cyberbullying" admitted thatDue to the high cost of rights protection, the damage caused by public opinion to the brand is difficult to repair in a short period of time, and companies cannot fully protect their legitimate rights and interests.

The rule of law is the best business environment. In late July this year, the Supreme People's Procuratorate announced five typical cases in which procuratorial organs punished the use of online violence to infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises in accordance with the law, sending a strong signal of severely punishing online violence crimes that harm enterprises in accordance with the law.

The head of a medical company with a market value of over 100 billion yuan suggested that some self-media accounts should be closed or cancelled in accordance with laws and regulations, and those who maliciously slander the company should be included in the self-media blacklist database.

Some companies also hope to promote the public security, procuratorate, judicial and other departments to jointly combat online violence against listed companies, and to file criminal cases against Internet celebrities who commit online violence and punish them according to law.

In addition to improving the legal system to punish "keystrokes that hurt enterprises", it is also very important to cut off the black interest chain behind cyber violence. Although "black public relations" disguised as media have been repeatedly cracked down, some people still take risks and "conspire" with some online brush companies to manipulate public opinion and create hot searches, thereby threatening and blackmailing enterprises and entrepreneurs and demanding high "public relations fees" and "hush money". If this interest chain is not cut off, it may be difficult to eradicate online rumors involving enterprises.

It is equally important to strengthen platform supervision. Some entrepreneurs suggested that platforms can try to seek technical solutions, improve algorithm recognition mechanisms, reduce the spread of false information, optimize user account management and punishment systems, traffic distribution rules, reporting acceptance mechanisms, etc., so that illegal accounts are truly "unprofitable" and "pay the price."

In the final analysis,We need to be serious about purifying the business network environment.