"Through investigation, it is found that in recent years, some criminals have created hot searches, misled the public through false traffic, and disrupted the network ecology." Recently, the reporter of the Rule of Law Daily learned from the Xinxiang City Public Security Bureau in Henan Province that the Xinxiang police successfully killed a super large "Internet Water Army" criminal gang with a large number of "Internet celebrity" and "Big V" accounts, and arrested 276 suspect, involving 50 million yuan. Mr. Niu, a car reviewer who owns a self media account, said that spreading rumors in videos can help quickly increase followers and account popularity. After accidentally browsing such videos, he couldn't resist the temptation and paid 50000 yuan in "promotional fees" to customer service after a simple communication, hoping to quickly increase followers through this method. After receiving the "publicity fee", the "brush hands" on the other end of the online space quickly forwarded, liked, and commented on the designated article through software according to Mr. Niu's requirements. Soon, Mr. Niu's blog post was "hyped up". Seeing his car review blog post rapidly increase in views, likes, and comments, and make it to the top of the car rankings at that time, Mr. Niu couldn't be happy. He said, "The comment section is filled with comments that are not related to the content of the blog post, such as' good 'and' very good '. When you click on these accounts that post comments, they are all empty, and your fan base has not increased." "Mr. Niu's situation is not an isolated case." The investigating police officer introduced that during online inspections, the Xinxiang Internet police found that multiple social media accounts were exceptionally active, frequently posting promotional advertisements, and vigorously promoting their team's ability to help customers significantly increase the browsing volume of account content, increase account popularity, and even appear on social hot search lists according to customer requirements. We chatted with the platform customer service as customers and found many problems inside. The platform customer service said that their company has many real "internet celebrities" and "big V" accounts, as well as a large number of ordinary social media accounts. They promise to quickly promote the content specified by customers on hot searches Wang Zheng, a police officer from the Network Technology Support Team of Xinxiang Public Security Bureau, said that after analysis, social media accounts are all verified with real names. If this company uses illegal means to manipulate a large number of social media accounts to forward, like, and comment, it is likely to be suspected of illegal business operations. After discovering the abnormal situation, the Xinxiang Public Security Bureau quickly established a special task force to crack down on the illegal activities of the "cyber navy". After careful investigation, a group of "internet water army" disguised as a cultural media company with the purpose of illegal profit has emerged. The chain is clear and covers a wide range. "At the beginning, I just used my own account to forward, like and comment, but the income was very small. In order to increase income, I bought software that can be operated in batches." suspect Zhang explained. The investigating police found in Zhang's studio that 10 computers were installed with a large number of mobile simulators. Each mobile simulator had logged into a social account and installed a software called "Qianyu Central Control", which could automatically like, comment, and forward social accounts. According to statistics, each computer in Zhang's studio is equipped with 50 mobile emulators, and 10 computers can control 500 social media accounts. As the investigation gradually deepened, the task force found that there are still many "online influencers" like Zhang across the country. Zhang's company, Henan Cultural Media Co., Ltd., has recruited thousands of "online influencers" from all over the country. With such a large amount of business, it can be inferred that multiple companies should be involved The investigating police introduced that through analyzing the financial flow of the companies involved, two internet companies located in Xiamen and Tianjin have surfaced. Both of these internet companies have a large number of "big V" accounts, ranging from tens of thousands to millions of followers. The task force has sorted out the criminal chain of the case and identified the modus operandi of the company involved. The investigating police officer gave an example: "A certain brand needs project promotion, and these online companies will provide hot search promotion plans for the brand in the form of advertising contracts. After signing the contract, the online company will package the task to downstream cultural and media companies at a fixed price, and the downstream companies will then organize 'online brush hands' to promote the content requested by the brand on hot searches through batch forwarding, liking, and commenting." "" The entire industry chain structure is complete, the chain is clear, and the coverage is extensive. In the upstream of the chain, the online companies that manage numerous' internet celebrities' and' big Vs' accounts use their resources to plan promotion plans and set targets for ranking. In the downstream of the chain, 'online brush hands' are recruited by various cultural companies and then use false clicks to promote the content requested by the brand. Comments, likes, and other means have become tools for creating hot topics Introduction by the head of the project team. The suspect Lai confessed that: "We will develop different promotion plans according to the fees paid by the brand side, for example, we will charge 50000 yuan to rush to the hot search ranking list and 20000 yuan to rush to the non hot search ranking list. If we want to stay on the list for a long time, we will charge more, and the 'online celebrity' and 'big V' accounts used are also different." After the Xinxiang Public Security Bureau mastered the relevant criminal facts for 800 million times, it decided to launch a network closing operation, successively seizing 276 suspect in Henan, Fujian, Tianjin, Shanghai and other places, and seizing a large number of mobile phones, computers and other tools used for crime. The public security organs have found that the "Internet Water Army" criminal gang has been involved in 800 million false "likes and comments" operations, covering various fields such as social public opinion, hot events, celebrity image, advertising promotion, and account operation, seriously disrupting the online ecosystem. The illegal and criminal activities of this criminal gang mainly include the following types: firstly, paid deletion of posts, taking advantage of technical loopholes, and paid removal of negative online information; The second is extortion and blackmail, using exposure of negative public opinion as a threat and disguising oneself as a journalist to extort and blackmail grassroots governments, enterprises, and institutions; The third is to manipulate a large number of accounts to provide false traffic and positive review services for online information through quantity control and evaluation; The fourth type is cyberbullying, where the gang uses cyber hacking techniques to illegally obtain and leak personal information, and engages in cyberbullying. As of now, the public security organs in Xinxiang City have taken criminal coercive measures against 94 people, transferred 19 people for prosecution, dismantled 6 "network water army" companies, and seized 4 automatic batch "reposting and liking" software. At present, the case is being further processed. Internet users should not easily believe in the online scam of 'staying at home and making money every day'. Seemingly easy money making promises are often bait for online black and grey industries. Every netizen should consciously abide by the Internet laws and regulations, jointly maintain a clear network environment, and never try the law by example. " The head of the task force reminded us. (New Society)