Chapter 289: So That's Why You Looked Familiar, It Was You Again, Kid!

Tao Video, as a premier platform for short-video news, has reached a certain level of traffic and scale by relying on all sorts of sensationalist exposés.

We often see various incidents on the trending lists, but if you look closely, you will find that many similar exposés are just short clips.

Looking at that clip alone, you actually cannot tell anything at all; for example, the previous incident involving Doctor An, or this incident involving Pusa Xiong.

Because those videos have all been trimmed at the beginning and end and have undergone a degree of artistic processing.

But after pairing them with their embellished text descriptions, one would feel, "Holy crap, what this guy did is truly perverted; he really is a huge pervert!"

In a sense, these so-called short videos focused on exposés are actually not much different from many of the "Small Essays" on Zhalang, except they have a video attached.

News media practitioners—this is also a professional group that is heavily criticized, but while criticizing them, do not forget those reporter comrades who have gone undercover in certain industries for years, using their own lives to expose the truth.

With the development of the internet today, short-video exposés have become the mainstream, but unfortunately, these short-video media outlets have turned this industry into a naked business.

Tao Video Company originally didn't take it seriously; if things reversed, they would just delete the video, it was simple, and it wasn't the first time they had done so.

Although many people cursed them for feeding on "human blood buns," it didn't matter; cursing is one thing, but making money is nothing to be ashamed of.

As it turned out, they didn't expect that if you walk the night path often enough, you will eventually meet a ghost; this time, someone was playing for real!

The video had been deleted, but the other party directly initiated a large-scale lawsuit involving the entire internet!

They were not blind, so they could naturally see this type of news.

However, the other party shouldn't come looking for trouble with them, right? They were just making videos, and they only reposted it...

"Alright, everyone rest easy, it's nothing major. Even if he really wants to sue, at most we'll just pay some money; the Company can still afford it. Everyone, continue working!" a leader at Tao Video said with a smile in the office area.

Hearing this, the editors in the office area responsible for writing and publishing the videos nodded. Since the Company had already thought of it, then it was fine.

Only, for some reason, Yu Dawei felt uneasy; the previous report was the one he had done.

These editors all had a great deal of autonomy, and for exposés like this, there had to be a "hook"; their performance evaluations were based on the click counts and like counts of those videos.

So naturally, everyone was exaggerating, and he didn't think there was anything wrong with what he had done before.

The event was the event, it was just written a bit more exaggeratedly.

Forget it, let's see if there are any new scoops. A man died saving someone in a park lake, a heroic act... what kind of hook is that.

Let's look at the next one instead: A man yelling at an old person on the street?

Hey, this one works. As long as you add some text description, you can put two people together who have absolutely no relationship.

"Man" becomes the son, and the "old person" is the man's father. A thirty-five-year-old man, because his father wouldn't give him money to buy a car, yelled at his old father on the street and even tried to hit him!

Look at that, the same news; once you do this, doesn't the hook appear?

Once such news is published, it will make those viewers standing on the moral high ground start to condemn or even curse. Once they curse, the traffic is there, and the performance metrics are there.

Inciting conflict—this is the "traffic code"; I don't tell just anyone.

As it turned out, before he had even finished editing a piece of text, he saw police officers walking in.

The police comrades from Jingnan City arrived faster than expected. Although this was the second batch of lawsuits, criminal investigations are always much faster than Civil Disputes.

Although the second batch of lawsuits over there had already had their Case Filing, it would still take a long time to reach the stage of service and trial.

And for a Criminal Private Prosecution, they were already going to make arrests, but before making arrests, they had conducted corresponding investigations.

It was finally determined that that report was indeed published by this Employee named Yu Dawei!

Although it is said that the upper management of the Company has a duty to review, the Company actually didn't review much; everything was based on traffic. If the traffic was high, then everything was fine.

"Yu Dawei, right? ID number..."

What, what is going on? Guo Zong hadn't left yet, so he hurried over and said, "Comrades, what are you doing? Did Dawei commit some crime?"

The police first said, "Following the Criminal Case Filing Notice from the Jingnan City People's Court, we have now decided to issue a Criminal Summons for you. Here is the Criminal Summons Document!"

Showing the Criminal Summons Document, the police then explained, "The video on the internet before about a perverted man stalking a young woman with intent to commit a crime was published by him, right? Now the other party has initiated a Criminal Private Prosecution against him. The Criminal Division of the Jingnan City People's Court has already accepted the Case Filing, and we have now decided to issue a Criminal Summons for him!"

Guo Zong was stunned for a moment. This—this was just reporting on it, how did it involve a Criminal Case again?

"Comrades, comrades, isn't there something wrong here? We are a news media platform; we are conducting normal news reporting and exercising Public Opinion Supervision. How could this be a crime? Could there be a mistake somewhere?"

Yu Dawei also reacted from his daze and hurriedly said, "Yeah, comrades, we are reporters; is it not allowed to report on things?"

Seeing that something big was happening, everyone else in the office stopped what they were doing and watched.

Because they were actually going to be arrested for a report gone wrong—this was something they never could have imagined!

This police officer from the Imperial Capital looked at the other party: "Reporting is fine, no problem. But when you knew there was only that video, and the person involved only said it was a ride-hailing driver knocking on the door, why did you directly impose labels like 'pervert' and 'intent to commit a crime' on the other party?"

Guo Zong's expression changed, but he still bit the bullet and said, "Well, comrade, look, normal news reporting can also have mistakes. You can't say we did it intentionally; we just reached a conclusion through normal logical deduction..."

"You don't understand this; this is a normal situation in journalism..."

However, before Guo Zong could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by the other party again.

"I don't understand? I'm a graduate from the National Communication University, and I don't understand? You people who haven't even passed the reporter's license exam are talking to me about media? I was worried you'd say you don't understand, so I specifically had myself transferred here today, you know that!"

The young officer's voice was louder than theirs.

Did they think the Public Security Department was still the old comrades of the past?

Old comrades have the advantages of old comrades, but young people also have the advantages of young people. The current public service departments are all becoming younger and highly educated.

This is to avoid this kind of situation where criminals claim "you don't understand, you don't understand" at every turn. Let's see who understands and who doesn't!

Guo Zong stood there, dumbfounded. Are the police so competitive now?

"Still 'I don't understand.' It's normal for news reports to have errors, but you call this situation 'normal deduction'? Let me ask you, what is a very important point of news reporting?"

"Don't know, right? News reporting must be truthful!"

"You call this deduction? Since when can deduction be written into news reports, and written with such a certain tone? You Tao Video have done this more than once or twice. Who do you think is a fool!"

The young officer was still talking there when the old comrade behind him stepped forward and shook his head, saying, "Alright, no need to explain so much. We are taking the person back now; are you going to stop us?"

Guo Zong looked back at the others in the office, and the others were looking at him too.

Actually, quite a few people here had studied media, but under the Company's requirement that traffic is supreme, everyone gradually forgot everything else and would stop at nothing for traffic.

As a result, only now that a problem had arisen did they suddenly realize that these behaviors of theirs were actually crimes!

News reporting must be truthful, but they, for the sake of traffic, for the sake of hooks, for the sake of eyeballs, avoided the important and dwelt on the trivial, and even deliberately incited conflict.

In the past, no one would file a lawsuit, but now that someone has, watching a colleague being taken away with one's own eyes—that kind of experience is truly something one can remember for a lifetime!

Realizing there was a problem, Guo Zong hurriedly explained: "Comrade, this, it's not a matter of understanding or not, this, his family doesn't know either, look..."

"So you are trying to stop us, is that it? We will naturally notify his family members; you don't need to trouble yourself. Is there anything else?"

Facing this situation, Guo Zong could only shake his head. What could he say? He was only a vice president of the Company, and even if the chairman were here, there would be nothing to be done.

Yu Dawei's face had turned completely pale. As the first link in the chain of stirring up trouble, they would often create various sensational news stories in their daily work, which frequently resulted in the parties involved being subjected to Internet Violence.

But they didn't care; they only needed traffic. As for whether the other party was miserable or not, well, sorry, they didn't know.

Only now did he finally know fear, yet he didn't know how to defend himself; a grown man was crying there like a baby in the month of birth.

Yu Dawei was taken away. Guo Zong looked at the remaining Employees, opened his mouth, but still said: "Everyone, don't be afraid. Dawei was only summoned; it's hard to say whether he actually committed a crime."

"Everyone should just continue to do their work well."

"Of course, pay a little attention to the boundaries."

The others didn't speak. Everyone was no fool; they had heard very clearly just now that it was a Criminal Private Prosecution filed by the other party, and the Court had already initiated Case Filing!

Guo Zong also knew there was no point in saying anything more at this moment. After saying a few words, he left. He had to hurry and report the situation to the chairman, then see how to handle this matter.

Tao Video had just accepted a new round of financing and was preparing for vigorous development. If this matter were to spread, it would be a huge blow to the Company itself.

The oxen and horses at the Jingnan City Court were about to be exhausted, while in the hotel, Zhou Yi's new video had already been mostly completed.

Since arriving in Jingnan City, Zhou Yi had already collected and filmed most of the material, such as the scene where Pusa Xiong was arguing with people online, and the scene where the other party was clamoring for Pusa Xiong to go ahead and sue.

As well as everyone's favorite: the scene where you tell me to sue, so I must sue you.

The script was also written by Pusa Xiong, but since it was their first collaboration, there were still some parts that were uncoordinated. Zhou Yi made the corresponding revisions, and he was now ready to start the voiceover.

"Hello everyone, my dear audience lords, I am your old friend A Yi. Sorry to keep you waiting. This case is not mine, but one involving a friend you are all very familiar with, and also an audience lord often seen in the comments section—Namo Gatling Pusa!"

"The story goes like this: late at night, on a rainy day, Pusa Xiong acted as a good person and drove two girls home. As a result, they didn't even give him the hundred yuan they had promised. When he went to ask for it, he was accused of being a ride-hailing driver knocking on doors, and they were very scared. Then, amidst the rhythm stirred up by some people with ulterior motives, he fell into Internet Violence."

"Normally, we have already filmed a video about Internet Violence, but unfortunately, it seems not many people remembered it. Pusa Xiong made the other party post an apology video, a reversal, but the popularity was pitifully low."

"And there were still quite a few people online clamoring at Pusa Xiong: 'I beg you to sue, if you don't sue, you're a coward!'"

"To be honest, I can't tolerate such words. Pusa Xiong asked me for help, saying he wanted me to help forward it to increase the popularity. I told him that if I just forwarded it, it wouldn't have much popularity. If you want popularity, you have to do something big!"

"So, I invited Fang Dazhuang to help with Legal Aid. This world shouldn't be like that. Can you just curse people online whenever you want? That won't do. To present facts and reason, someone always needs to do it!"

"As you have all seen, many people have posted their Summons. Very good. I can also tell everyone here that Pusa Xiong has filed a Criminal Private Prosecution against several hundred people. Now these people have all been brought to justice. I'm not afraid to tell you, their tearful appearance now is very different from their arrogant appearance online."

"Actually, whether it's me or Pusa Xiong, we both quite liked their previous unbridled appearance, and we hope they can recover it."

Following Zhou Yi's commentary, the video showed a lot of content: Netizen comments that made one's blood pressure rise, and the scene where Pusa Xiong said he would sue, and he would definitely sue without ambiguity.

Of course, just like the previous videos, it was divided into two parts. This episode only went up to Pusa Xiong filing the lawsuit; as for what follows, that will be in the next episode.

When it comes to the skill of cutting videos, Zhou Mouren still has some insights.

"Of course, besides these clamoring people, we have also soon filed a second batch of Litigation. This time, it is aimed at those platforms and columns!"

"Can news reports be unscrupulous? Can they say whatever they want? Public Opinion Supervision and news defamation are two completely different concepts!"

"Those platforms that feed on human blood buns, just wait and see."

At the end of the video, as per custom, the corresponding Indictment was displayed.

The voiceover finished. He watched the video from beginning to end again out of habit, found no problems, and immediately clicked upload!

Originally, the popularity of this matter was already very high online because of the actions of those who posted their Summons. A Yi's video being released was like adding fuel to the fire!

The first reaction of those audience lords after seeing the video was: I knew this looked familiar, so it was you kid behind it all along!

Morning throat-moistening chapter, good morning everyone. Thanks to Interest-Driven God-Draw Dog, Wind Spirit Light, Old Color Outside, Soy Sauce Reappears, JDHSUF, Inheritor of Purity Level, Another Newbie Brother, Wenchidage, Feimaowuyu, wfei. Thanks to the brothers for the tips, thank you.

These platforms are actually not exaggerating at all, really... the brother from before, don't doubt it. Go search for the Dr. An incident. You think they wouldn't do such a thing, but they did.

(End of this chapter)