On June 29th, it was learned from Guangdong police that recently, under the direct command of the Ministry of Public Security's Cyber Security Bureau and the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department's Cyber Security Corps, the Heyuan Public Security Bureau, based on leads and after in-depth investigation, carried out a precise operation to dismantle a criminal gang led by Li Moujun that used online public opinion for extortion, successfully arresting 12 suspects.
Investigations revealed that the gang led by Li Moujun established an MCN (Multi-Channel Network) agency, registering a company named "A Certain Cultural Communication Co., Ltd." This agency actually controlled multiple WeChat public accounts and Weibo accounts, with a total following exceeding ten million.
This gang long employed online writers to collect and piece together various celebrity gossip. They used an AI tool to control their multiple influential verified accounts to post content, deliberately creating negative public opinion hotspots during the broadcast of TV dramas and variety shows.
After the gang posted to create negative public opinion, the related production teams faced public pressure and proactively contacted Li Moujun to negotiate post deletion. Li Moujun used this to demand that TV drama broadcasting platforms or celebrity agencies purchase their so-called "drama protection" service, otherwise refusing to delete the negative online posts.
The gang's "drama protection" service generally included sending positive promotional posts for the series, deleting previously posted negative posts about related celebrities, and promising not to post negative content about the series or celebrities during the broadcast period. By manipulating multiple influential verified accounts, creating negative public opinion, and coercing film and television parties into purchasing "drama protection" services, the gang used online public opinion to carry out extortion.
According to the investigation, the victims of extortion by Li Moujun's gang's MCN agency involved several well-known actors and the distributors of multiple popular TV series. They had previously been sued by multiple artists, agencies, or film and television production companies for reputational infringement. Li Moujun's gang seriously disrupted the normal publicity and distribution order of the film and television industry, damaged the online public opinion ecosystem, and infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of production companies (investors) and artists.
After fully investigating the case, the Heyuan Public Security Bureau dispatched over a hundred police officers to 8 provinces and 2 cities, arresting all 12 core members of the gang. After interrogation, Li Moujun's gang confessed to the criminal facts. The case is under further investigation.
It was learned that earlier, bloggers with online names like "A Certain Blast Sister" and "A Certain Blast Brother" had attracted high attention from Heyuan police. One of these bloggers was verified as a popular blogger for currently airing TV dramas, with 1.943 million followers and published content receiving 161 million reposts, comments, and likes.
This gang, by manipulating multiple influential verified accounts to create negative public opinion and coercing film and television parties into purchasing "drama protection" services, carried out online public opinion extortion, involving a total of over 400,000 yuan. Police revealed that the gang charged 2000 to 3000 yuan per post for deletion.