On February 23 this year, CCTV's "Focus Interview" exposed the chaos of medical beauty live broadcasts. Immediately, multiple platforms immediately offline the medical beauty live broadcast rooms, and medical beauty live broadcasts were completely stopped. According to reports, a

On February 23 this year, CCTV’s “Focus Interview” exposed the chaos of medical beauty live broadcasts. Immediately, multiple platforms immediately offline the medical beauty live broadcast rooms, and medical beauty live broadcasts were completely stopped. According to reports, a new variant of medical beauty live streaming has recently appeared on some short video platforms. Through abstract expressions and gestures such as "people in white clothes show you the face" and "beautiful products don't have too many mimi", they try to brush aside the boundaries. Supervise red lines and restart medical beauty live streaming. This makes it difficult for consumers to distinguish the authenticity of information, and it is easy for consumers to fall into the "beauty trap", resulting in financial losses and physical injuries.

In recent years, with the rise of short videos and live broadcasts, more and more doctors are sharing medical knowledge in platform live broadcast rooms, which has become an important form of professional live broadcast. However, in the medical beauty live broadcasts launched by some medical beauty institutions or online content planning and marketing agencies (mcn agencies), chaos such as unqualified personnel posing as doctors, false propaganda, and illegal shipments quickly appeared, which aroused the high vigilance of regulatory authorities and the public. In February this year, medical beauty live broadcasts were exposed and completely stopped. Unexpectedly, a few months later, "variant" medical beauty live broadcasts made a comeback, not only using various "black words" to avoid supervision, but also in the live broadcast room Directly posting product links and selling medical and aesthetic products of unknown origin bring hidden dangers and harms that cannot be ignored to normal medical and aesthetic consumption.

To rectify the chaos of medical beauty live streaming, there are laws and regulations to follow. In June 2022, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the "Code of Conduct for Online Anchors", which requires that "for live broadcast content that requires a higher professional level (such as medical and health, finance, law, education), the anchor should obtain the corresponding professional license Qualifications, and report professional qualifications to the live broadcast platform, and the live broadcast platform should review and register the anchor’s qualifications.” It is a typical violation of laws and regulations for unqualified personnel to pretend to be doctors to conduct "medical beauty live broadcasts"; if the platform is exploited by unqualified personnel, or allows them to conduct "medical beauty live broadcasts" intentionally or unintentionally, it is also a typical act of negligence.

In May 2023, 11 departments including the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Ministry of Public Security, and the National Health Commission jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Further Strengthening the Supervision of the Medical Beauty Industry", which clearly stipulates that medical beauty services are medical activities. It is required to strengthen the supervision of medical beauty "shopping guide" activities. Personnel without corresponding qualifications are strictly prohibited from engaging in medical beauty diagnosis and treatment consultation, medical guidance services online and offline, or using the Internet to publish professional information related to the medical field. It is strictly prohibited to make inappropriate decisions in medical beauty "shopping guides". Commitments or statements that comply with laws, regulations and diagnostic and treatment standards. According to the requirements of the "Opinions", live streaming of medical aesthetics is a medical advertising activity and must strictly abide by the "Advertising Law" and other laws and regulations. The anchor must have corresponding qualifications and cannot be arbitrarily used during live broadcasts. Information release must comply with medical advertising standards to ensure the safety of live broadcasts of medical aesthetics. Legality and safety.

In December 2023, the State Administration for Market Regulation, together with the Central Cyberspace Administration and the National Health Commission, held a platform administrative guidance meeting to further impose strict restrictions on medical beauty live broadcasts and require all platforms to immediately stop medical beauty live broadcasts carried out by mcn institutions and experts. The live broadcast of merchant accounts of medical beauty institutions strictly displays the basic information of medical services objectively. Merchants of medical beauty institutions are not allowed to use popular science and medical knowledge to recommend medical beauty products. In May 2024, the National Health Commission and other fourteen departments jointly issued the "Key Points of Correcting Improper Practices in the Field of Pharmaceutical Purchase and Sales and Medical Services in 2024", which requires increasing the supervision of medical-related online live broadcasts, information content, and dissemination order. and other supervision efforts, focusing on cracking down on violations of laws and regulations such as the disguised release of advertisements for medical treatments, drugs, medical devices, etc.

According to the above regulations, only online live broadcasts launched by legal medical beauty institutions, with the anchor having legal qualifications and not carrying goods are legal medical beauty live broadcasts, and those who violate them are illegal medical beauty live broadcasts. At present, it is urgent to take strict rectification measures to promptly plug the loopholes of the "variations" of illegal medical beauty live broadcasts, curb the rise of illegal medical beauty live broadcasts, and further explore a long-term mechanism to strengthen the supervision of the medical beauty industry to allow legal medical beauty Live broadcast can truly play a role in improving public health literacy and rational consumption ability.

text/Photo courtesy of Lin Jiangxian

/Visual China

editor/Wang Han