The reporter's investigation found that some network platform anchors sold various styles of hand-made cigarettes live under the cover of various codes, and the business was very hot. Selling cigarettes online without permission not only violates relevant laws, but also is not conducive to the protection of minors. Insiders suggested that the supervision of illegal cigarette sales on the Internet should be strengthened, and relevant platforms should clean up such accounts in time.
The cut tobacco is called "cat food" and the secret code is "greasy"
The reporter's investigation found that on some network platforms, some network anchors sell cigarettes live under the cover of various codes. In these live broadcasting rooms, only some color cards marked with numbers and different colors are often placed. It is impossible to see what they are doing from the appearance. Most of the anchor only heard his voice but did not see him. They talked to their fans by watching the "bullet screen".
The reporter points into a live broadcast room, and words such as "6.5", "8.0", "silk" and "chalk tube" constantly appear on the screen. The reporter asked the anchor "what is 6.5", and soon got the answer "6.5 is fine support". The reporter then clicked on the small yellow car at the bottom right of the screen and saw that there were a large number of "paper shredders", "chalk tubes" and "steel wire balls" in it. There were also a number of videos on cigarettes and how to use cigarette machines on the home page.
After continuous inquiry, the reporter confirmed that this was the live broadcast of selling hand rolled cigarettes. "Paper shredder" refers to manual cigarette machine, "steel ball" refers to cut tobacco, and "chalk tube" refers to filter tip cigarette tube.
The reporter entered the above keywords on a certain platform and found that there were a large number of live broadcasts of selling cigarettes, generally using secret codes for communication. Some platforms even input sensitive words such as "cut tobacco" and "pipe", and can also find live video of selling cigarettes and Related videos.
"Laotie who likes mellow 'cat food' can directly choose link 19 to place an order!" The reporter searched for "cut tobacco" on a platform and entered a live broadcasting room. Click on the small yellow car, which displays "faxiao cat food (Hibiscus flavor - small and medium)" and "faxiao cat food (Xi flavor - Xiao)" and other products, with up to 23 varieties. In just a few minutes, 50 customers entered the live broadcasting room to make inquiries. Some customers leave a message saying: "this time, I will buy yours."
"Vest" is more than one, and "hard goods" are instant second kill
According to the reporter's investigation, these anchors rarely directly say that they contain the keyword "smoke", nor mention the cigarette brand, and the trading code is full of tricks.
In the webcast room watched by reporters alone, there are many Titles: cigarette machine is called "paper shredder", "stapler", "pencil sharpener" and "vegetable cutter", filter cigarette tube is called "pencil", "chalk", "chalk tube" and "hollow tube", cut tobacco is called "cat food", "bait", "bait", "steel wire ball" and "cleaning ball", so as to cover up the truth.
To cater to users' preferences, many filter tip cigarette tubes are marked with various well-known cigarette brands, covering almost all the best-selling high-end cigarette brands, with different prices and specifications.
Some anchors were cautious. Facing the reporter's inquiry about whether there was a certain brand of cigarette tube, they directly told "don't say the name of the cigarette", but use "Huanglong", "LvHua" and "black tube" instead, and took out the corresponding color card to ask the reporter "can you understand it?".
Correspondingly, cut tobacco is also divided into small force, medium force and large force. As for the quality of cut tobacco, many anchors say that it is the raw silk produced in Yunnan, without adding spices, and the taste is absolutely pure. The price of different cut tobacco ranges from tens of yuan to hundreds of yuan per kilogram. The price of 1200 "6.5 Cigarette Tubes" is about 80 yuan. The price of manual cigarette machines is generally about 150 yuan. You can buy them alone or in set meals.
Although there are only "paper shredder" and "chalk tube" displayed in the small yellow car of some live broadcasting rooms, when the reporter asked whether there is cut tobacco and how to buy it, some anchor said: "yes! You can add wechat for private chat if you want."
The reporter found that many anchors often live for several hours at a time, and the number of fans ranges from thousands to tens of thousands. In the live broadcasting room, the sales of cut tobacco and cigarette sets were also very popular. Before the end of some live broadcasts, some styles of cigarette tubes and cut tobacco were snapped up.
The reporter contacted the customer service personnel of a short video platform and asked whether it was possible to release cigarette videos. The customer service staff replied "violating community regulations", but did not explain how they would be punished.
In addition to live selling cigarettes, you can find a large number of short videos promoting cigarette tubes, cigarette gift boxes or other cigarettes by entering "cigarettes", "cigarettes" and "Cigarette Tubes" on some social platform apps. Some evaluate the taste of a certain type of cigarette, while others directly recommend ten types of cigarettes suitable for boys or girls. Some video publishers will also set the top contact information in the message area to facilitate consumers' contact and purchase. When you find a message about buying cigarettes, some accounts will reply "in stock".
In addition, there are also a large number of videos on the social networking platform to identify true and false cigarettes. It seems to be popular science, but in fact it is advertising for some cigarette brands in disguise. Many citizens said that this practice should be banned, especially tobacco companies and staff should not publish such videos on the Internet.
There are many dangers in selling cigarettes live, online and offline
Li Enze, vice chairman of the public welfare law professional committee of the China Association for tobacco control, said that from a legal point of view, it is illegal to sell cigarettes through webcast or short video online without permission.
China's tobacco monopoly law stipulates that cigarettes, cigars, cut tobacco, redried tobacco leaves, tobacco leaves, cigarette paper, filter rods, cigarette tow and tobacco special machinery are all tobacco monopoly goods. Article 40 of the measures for the administration of tobacco monopoly licenses stipulates that no citizen, legal person or other organization may sell tobacco monopoly commodities through information networks, except for enterprises that have obtained a license for a tobacco monopoly production enterprise or a license for a tobacco monopoly wholesale enterprise.
In addition, selling cigarettes online will also induce teenagers to smoke, which is not conducive to the protection of minors. Now, many teenagers have tablet computers or mobile phones, and it is easy to get access to live cigarette selling videos and short cigarette videos. Once watching such videos, relevant platforms will constantly push relevant content, which is easy to strengthen teenagers' impression of cigarettes. Some physical stores selling cigarettes often release various cigarette gift box videos on the social networking platform on Valentine's day, Mid Autumn Festival and other festivals, which looks romantic and exquisite, and is easy to attract teenagers to buy.
"Although China's laws explicitly prohibit the sale of cigarettes to minors, it is difficult for social media users to determine whether the customer is an adult." Li Enze said.
Insiders said that there are still many loopholes in the regulation of online cigarette trading. The regulatory authorities should establish a normalized linkage governance mechanism with the network platform, intensify offline crackdown, trace the source of relevant cut tobacco and smoking sets, and cut off the interest chain of online cigarette sales from the source.
Zhangjianshu, President of the Beijing Association for tobacco control, said that the key is to form effective supervision, so that online cigarette sales can not be exposed, and prevent the regulation from convergence and resurgence after a while.
Li Enze suggested that the punishment should be strengthened. In addition to pursuing legal responsibilities according to law, the relevant network platforms should also take measures such as blocking and lifelong prohibition of re registration to crack down on and clean up the anchors and merchants who illegally sell cigarettes online.