Time to fight 'internet water army'

The internet, e-commerce activities in particular, has greatly changed people's lifestyle and the way people work. But the misuse and abuse of internet platforms and information and communications technology have seriously harmed the interests of market entities and consumers. Among these insidious threats is what has come to be known as the "internet water army".

The term is used to describe groups of ghostwriters paid to post a large number of online comments and posters to achieve specific targets, for instance, promoting products and services, slandering competitors, or simply spreading information (or disinformation). Sometimes it could be difficult to distinguish the "internet water army" from normal netizens.

The "internet water army" is ready and willing to "flood" the internet with favorable contents for whoever is willing to pay, and there seems to be plenty of demand for it.

The "internet water army" mainly consists of full-time writers organized by online public relations companies and spammers. However, the advertisers, and professional promoters who cooperate with, and have a high demand for, the special employees also harm the interests of market entities and consumers, because they wittingly or otherwise connive with the group to fulfill their goals, which many a time are ulterior.

Positive recommendations can make a huge difference to a product's sales but can also drive a competitor out of the market. When companies spend millions of yuan to launch new goods or services, it's easy to understand why they might want to use every tool at their disposal to achieve success. The loser in all this is the consumer who is conned into making a purchase decision based on false premises.

Indeed, the activities carried out by the "internet water army", such as posting motivated comments and posters, deleting materials, and uploading dubious and sham advertisements are illegal. Especially unscrupulous is the posting of comments and other contents on a commercial scale in order to achieve a business target, for instance, making a product or service extremely popular in a short period of time.

Online comments and other materials are usually deleted in cooperation with people who posted the slanderous comments and materials in the first place－and hefty amounts are charged for that. As for illegal advertisements, they often involve online public relations companies reposting such ads in large quantities with the help of an "internet water army", and in many cases in cooperation with internet celebrities.

The "internet water army" facilitates unfair competition and harms the interests of the public. It not only violates the legal rights and interests of consumers, and other producers and operators, but also disrupts the normal market order. In fact, many of the group's actions are criminal offenses, which should be punished.

The authorities should therefore take multi-pronged measures using legal, administrative and technical means to end the illegal activities of the internet water armies by, among other things, strengthening supervision of internet platforms and related enterprises to strike the right balance between freedom of expression and safeguarding of the legitimate rights and interests of the people.

In recent years, the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Public Security have taken targeted measures to curb the spread of the "internet water army", and achieved remarkable results. And the latter has been promoting a campaign to fight against these illegal activities since late June.

In addition, it is also necessary to strengthen and upgrade the technical measures just like Douban, a Chinese social platform, did by introducing software in April to prevent the "internet water army" from controlling online comments.

As for the public, it should improve its understanding of the "internet water army", not be easily impressed by the lofty comments about a product or service, and make an informed choice when it comes to purchasing a product, and thus contribute to the cleaning of the internet.

The author is a professor of law at the China University of Political Science and Law and a standing counsel to the China Intellectual Property Society.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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