Live Broadcast With Goods And "Tight Hoop": Major Anchors Such As Wei Ya And Li Jiaqi May Face Stricter Supervision

Live delivery of goods continues to be regulated. Recently, seven departments including the state Internet Information Office, the Ministry of public security, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of culture and tourism, the State Administration of Taxation, the State Administration of market supervision and administration, and the State Administration of radio and television jointly issued the measures for the administration of live network marketing (Trial Implementation) (hereinafter referred to as the measures).

On the one hand, the "measures" include all kinds of subjects "in front of the stage and behind the scenes" and "online and offline" elements in the scope of supervision for the "people, goods, and markets" in the network live broadcast marketing. On the other hand, the rights and responsibilities of the participants such as the live broadcast marketing platform, the operators of the live broadcasting room, the live marketing personnel, and the service agencies of the live marketing personnel are specified, Further compaction of the main responsibility of all parties.

It is worth noting that the measures take such measures as arranging special personnel for real-time inspection and prolonging the storage time of live broadcast contents for operators of key live broadcasting rooms with large number of fans and large transaction amount. This may strengthen the supervision of major anchors such as Li Jiaqi and Weiya.

The platform needs hierarchical management

As a new business model and Internet format, network live marketing, which is usually called live with goods, has developed rapidly in recent years. According to the data released by China Internet Network Information Center, as of December 2020, the number of live e-commerce users in China has reached 388 million, ranking first in all live webcast segments. 66.2% of live e-commerce users have purchased live broadcast products.

At the same time, there are also many problems in live delivery. The relevant person in charge of the national Internet Information Office said frankly that there were some problems in live broadcast with goods, such as improper words and deeds of live marketing personnel, profit-making through live broadcast of minors, inadequate performance of the main responsibility of the platform, false publicity and data fraud, frequent occurrence of fake and shoddy goods, and difficulties in consumers' rights protection and evidence collection.

From the perspective of policy, since last year, restrictions on live delivery have been tightened. Since November last year, the State Administration of market supervision and the State Administration of radio, film and television have successively issued the guiding opinions on strengthening the supervision of online live broadcasting marketing activities, and the notice on strengthening the management of live broadcast of online show and e-commerce. Just last month, the measures for the supervision and management of online transactions were issued, which clearly stipulated the operator positioning in the current "social e-commerce" and "live with goods" and other online trading activities.

This time, the seven departments jointly carried goods with the sword finger live broadcast. Sun Zhisheng, Deputy Secretary General of the media purchase commission of the China Federation of Commerce and industry, pointed out in an interview with the 21st century economic news reporter that it is very necessary to strengthen joint supervision. Before the promulgation of the measures, live delivery with goods seems to have entered a "strange circle" - it seems that all departments can manage, but each department can not.

From the perspective of supervising the whole process of live marketing activities, the measures strengthen the management in advance, during and after the event, and compact the main responsibility of the platform.

In terms of pre audit and prevention, the measures require that the live marketing platform should establish and improve the registration and cancellation of account number and live marketing function, information security management, marketing behavior norms, minors protection, consumer rights and interests protection, personal information protection, network and data security management and other mechanisms and measures. It is required that the live broadcast marketing platform should be equipped with live content management professionals suitable for the service scale, and perform the obligation of verifying the authenticity and legitimacy of live marketing content, goods and services.

The "measures" also strengthened the warning and handling measures in the case of live delivery of goods. For example, live marketing platform should establish a live marketing personnel real identity dynamic verification mechanism. We should strengthen the management of marketing information content of network live broadcast, strengthen the information security management of jump services such as links and two-dimensional codes in the live broadcast room, carry out information release audit and real-time inspection, and immediately take measures such as limiting traffic and suspending live broadcast when illegal and bad information is found.

Zhao Zhanzhan, a special researcher at the intellectual property research center of China University of political science and law, believes that these Provisions, to a certain extent, correspond to the risks of information security implied in the false publicity, endorsement of fake and shoddy products, and the provision of product links or QR codes.

In addition, the measures emphasize the punishment measures after the event, and require the platform to take resolute measures such as blocking live broadcast, closing account number, blacklisting and joint punishment for illegal behaviors.

It is worth noting that in terms of "prevention in advance", the measures put forward that the operators of key live broadcasting rooms should be arranged with special personnel for real-time inspection, and the storage time of live broadcast content should be extended.

This means that operators of key live broadcasting rooms with large number of fans and large transaction amount will be subject to more stringent restrictions.

According to the measures, operators of live broadcasting rooms refer to individuals, legal persons and other organizations that have registered accounts on the live broadcasting marketing platform or set up their own websites and other network services to engage in online live marketing activities.

Yao Zhiwei, a professor at the Law School of Guangdong University of Finance and economics and director of the network and Information Law Research Association of China law society, believes that this may strengthen the supervision of major anchors such as Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya.

Zhao also said that the platform imposed more stringent management measures on the head anchor, which can greatly reduce the occurrence of problems.

Prior to this, the head anchor Simba caused widespread controversy over the sale of fake bird's nest. Simba was once banned for 60 days, and the Guangzhou market supervision department also fined it 900000 yuan.

Strengthen the tax management of live broadcast with goods

The reporter noted that the "measures" mentioned in many places the tax issue of live delivery with goods.

According to Article 8 of the measures, the live broadcast marketing platform shall authenticate the operators and marketing personnel of the live broadcasting room based on the identity document information and unified social credit code, and submit the identity information and other tax related information to the tax authorities in accordance with the law. Article 16 mentions that the live broadcast marketing platform shall prompt the operators of the live broadcasting room to handle the registration of market entities or tax registration in accordance with the law, declare the income truthfully, fulfill the tax obligations according to law, and enjoy the tax preference in accordance with the law. The live marketing platform and live marketing personnel service agencies shall perform the withholding obligation according to law.

Zhao Zhanzhan said that in terms of tax, if the operators of the live broadcasting room or the marketing personnel of the live broadcasting room directly accept the orders from consumers, then they play the role of product sellers. In this case, they need to pay taxes according to the sales of goods; Another situation is that the operators of the live broadcasting room or the marketing personnel of live broadcasting are promoting the third-party products, and their income as advertising spokesmen should also be taxed according to law.

An industry person familiar with the live marketing activities said that there are still two major problems in the tax issue of live broadcast with goods. One is that if the anchor does not take the initiative to declare, tax collection and management will be more difficult. In addition, for the sake of protecting the local new business environment, the overall attitude of tax authorities is still more cautious and tolerant.

"This time, the" measures "are more like a basic system, setting down the rules and establishing a preliminary database." This person said.

The live broadcasting room shall not use technology to forge and use other people's portraits

The measures also strengthened the management of new technologies and new applications.

According to Article 13 of the measures, the live marketing platform shall strengthen the online and use management of new technologies, new applications and new functions, and conduct safety assessment in accordance with relevant regulations and identify them in a prominent way if they use the virtual images displayed by artificial intelligence, digital vision, virtual reality, speech synthesis and other technologies. Article 25 mentions that if the operator of the live broadcasting room or the marketing personnel of the live broadcast use the portrait of another person as the virtual image to engage in the marketing activities of the network live broadcast, they shall obtain the consent of the portrait right owner, and shall not infringe the portrait right of others by means of information technology forgery. The protection of the voice of natural persons shall be governed by reference to the preceding provisions.

Yao Zhiwei told 21st century economic reporter that this is the regulatory level's attention to the recently controversial deep forgery technology. According to him, the current deep forgery technology has enabled ordinary users without technical background to adjust the speed, camera effect, change background, change face and other operations with the help of low-cost or even free software.

The reporter noted that in March this year, the state Internet information office and the Ministry of public security instructed local network information departments in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other local network and information departments and public security organs to interview 11 enterprises, including Yingke, Xiaomi, Kuaishou and byte skipping, in March this year, Supervise and urge them to seriously carry out security assessment, improve risk prevention and control mechanism and measures in accordance with laws, regulations and policy requirements such as "network security law", "provisions on Internet information service security assessment with public opinion attribute or social mobilization ability", and timely take effective rectification measures for potential safety hazards found in security assessment, and earnestly fulfill the main responsibility of enterprise information content security.

"Once such technology is abused, it will be very likely to infringe on property safety, personal safety, public security and even national security." Yao Zhiwei said.

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