Recently, putting an end to "cyber violence" and bombarding "black public relations" has once again become a hot topic in the automotive industry.
html On June 21, GAC Group issued the "Initiative on Jointly Eradicating Cyber Violence and Maintaining a Good Public Opinion Environment", calling on all peers to respond to the "Cyber Violence Information Governance Regulations" promulgated by the country and work together to create a law-abiding, law-abiding, and public opinion environment. Create a good online environment of honesty, trustworthiness, respect and mutual assistance, and resolutely resist online violence such as spreading rumors, smearing, and slandering others. At the same time, it was announced that from now on, the GAC Group Online Reporting Center will be established to publicly collect clues or evidence of online infringements against GAC Group, its management, and entrepreneurs from netizens to further safeguard the company's brand image and legitimate rights and interests. It promises to reward the whistleblower with a reward of 100,000-1 million yuan based on the actual situation.Under this Weibo, a number of domestic car brands queued up to comment and like, BYD , Chery , SAIC, Changan , NIO , Dongfeng, Xiaopeng , BAIC , Jiangzhou Automobile Waiting for the official Weibo to express support.
Earlier on June 19, Li Yunfei, general manager of BYD Group’s Brand and Public Relations Department, posted on Weibo: “Recently, we have received reminders from many parties: a certain car company is using black public relations tactics to damage our brand. and products to disparage, dislike and maliciously slander! Regarding the above and past situations, we are now collecting effective clues and evidence of black public relations from netizens and all walks of life, including but not limited to chat records, audio and video recordings, emails, contracts, and fee payments. As long as the information can clearly point to relevant individuals, black public relations advertising companies or relevant car companies, we will sort and report it to the relevant departments such as the Public Security Bureau and Economic Investigation. Once verified to be true, we will reward 200,000 to 5 million yuan for effective clues and evidence providers. RMB, while keeping the personal information of the provider strictly confidential!”
This is not the first time Li Yunfei has criticized “black public relations”. At the China Automobile Chongqing Forum held in early June, Li Yunfei once said: "I hope that Chery can not only be the second in China (new energy vehicles), but also be closer to BYD, and the closer to us, the better. This can help Let’s share some of the ‘firepower’. There is so much competition now, both overt and covert, on the table and off the stage, both on the stage and on the stage.” BYD once said. I have been attacked by "black public relations".
BYD did not name the car companies with specific suspicions, which also made netizens start the "guess guessing" mode. Several car companies have become the objects of suspicion by netizens :
New Yellow River reporters noticed that on June 19, Li Yunfei In the comment area of the Japanese Weibo post, the most popular comment was a picture comment. The content was a report from the China Consumer News Weibo on June 20: Recently, Tianjin Boxin Hongda Automobile Sales and Service Co., Ltd. was accused of spreading misleading information. , damaged the business reputation and product reputation of competitors, and was fined 5,000 yuan by the Tianjin Xiqing District Market Supervision Bureau. Li Yunfei also replied to this comment.
According to previous reports, as early as December 2021, BYD launched the "BYD Clear Action" with the purpose of combating online black public relations chaos and maintaining BYD's brand image. The reward amount was determined to be 50,000 to 1 million yuan. On June 1, 2022, BYD announced that it would adjust the reporting reward from 50,000 to 1 million yuan to 50,000 to 5 million yuan for one year from now on. On December 3, 2023, BYD adjusted the above reward period to be long-term.
In addition to BYD, Great Wall Motors launched an online reporting center on March 22, 2022 to combat online rumors and reward those who provide clues with up to 1 million yuan.
On June 20, 2022, Geely Automobile Internet False Information Reporting Center was launched. At the same time, it was announced that a reward of up to 1 million yuan would be awarded based on the value of clues and evidence.
On March 10, 2023, Great Wall Motors launched a special network cleanup operation to combat "cyber trolls" - the "10 million bounty plan". Within 7 days, the Great Wall Motors Network Reporting Center received a total of 474 reports. The content of the reports It mainly distorts the truth, slanders and slanders for no reason, populist moral crusade, and group wars of words, involving Toutiao, Douyin, Weibo, Kuaishou and many other platforms.
It is not new for car companies to offer large sums of money to combat illegal public relations on the Internet. Why are GAC and BYD making high-profile statements again this time?
Based on recent reports, it is not only the consensus of car companies to create a clear network environment in the car industry, but also the regulatory level of is also releasing a signal of heavy rectification .
html On June 7, according to CCTV news reports, the Cyberspace Administration of China released the "Special Action to "Clear and Optimize the Business Network Environment and Censor Infringement Information Chaos involving Enterprises" to publicly expose a number of typical cases, which notified 5.3 million fans of their cars. The situation of the media account "Xiao Niu Shuo Car" being blocked - "Xiao Niu Shuo Car" and other accounts deliberately exaggerated and distorted the facts to smear and slander the company and its founder. The Douyin account "Xiao Niu Shuo Car", the car-savvy account "Xiao Niu Shuo Car New", and the Toutiao account "Huang Xiaoniu New" have published short videos many times in order to attract attention and attract traffic, distorting and fabricating facts and maliciously slandering a certain person. Brand car quality and the image and reputation of the car company and founder. The accounts involved have been closed in accordance with the law and contract.Lin Shi, Secretary General of the Intelligent Connected Vehicles of the China-Europe Association, said in an interview with the China High-tech Industry Herald that various car companies are now actively taking measures to crack down on "black public relations" through laws and rewards and protect their own reputation. Legitimate rights and interests, overall, the illegal costs of smearing are already very high. To effectively govern, government departments need to supervise more strongly and increase penalties; at the same time, the industry must also strengthen self-restraint and sign some binding agreements. agreements, etc., and work together to promote healthy and orderly competition in the industry.
He also said that it is very important for car companies to be strong and work hard in core competitive areas such as product quality and service. If they have no problems, they don't have to worry about being discredited, because they have the confidence to clarify.
Li Pengcheng, the former CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of Avita Automobile, believes that it is impossible to solve this problem by relying on industry self-discipline and legal affairs. He posted in the circle of friends: "The automobile industry is becoming more and more crazy, and it is easy to say Others cheat and flip tables. Such things are very common in the entire industry. Backstabbing is everywhere. Every company is trying to prove its innocence. The industry seems to be a victim, and there is no perpetrator. "As long as there is competition. , there will be means of competition. As competition intensifies, many means will turn from benign to malignant. This is an inevitable law of nature. Under today's situation, it is basically impossible to solve this problem solely by relying on industry self-discipline and legal affairs. We still hope that relevant national departments and industry associations will come up with an overall approach.