Rebirth 2010: I taught Mr. Lei how to make a mobile phone

Chapter 939 I will lead the charge!

On September 5th, the eastern sky was just beginning to lighten, while the western sky remained shrouded in deep, inky blackness, like the gaping maw of a ferocious beast ready to devour its prey, silently enveloping the earth.

Most of the main buildings of the Beyond Science and Technology Park were still shrouded in silence, except for the brightly lit conference room on the top floor of the main building.

It was the same people, the same seats, but the air was thick with a tense atmosphere, like the calm before a storm.

Chen Mo pushed a newly received document to the center of the conference table, his voice calm yet authoritative: "This is the official announcement that will be released at 10:00 AM. Everyone, please take a look and be prepared."

The document was passed around among the people, and the sound of paper rubbing together was clearly audible.

"Serious disruption", "punish those responsible", "deep reflection"—these keywords struck like heavy blows to everyone's hearts, making the atmosphere increasingly tense.

After the document was circulated, Chen Mo threw it directly into the shredder next to him.

Amidst the hum of the machine, he looked around at the crowd, a faint smile on his face: "Just take a look, don't take it too seriously."

This document should have been released yesterday.

Everyone understood Chen Mo's unspoken words; it was to buy them another day.

Then Chen Mo leaned forward slightly, his gaze sweeping over each face: "So, tell me, how are your preparations going?"

"Always ready." The crowd's response was uniform and deep, carrying a do-or-die determination and a hint of fervor in their hearts.

Chen Mo nodded in satisfaction and glanced at his wristwatch:
"There are 1 hour and 23 minutes left until the 10 o'clock press conference. Everyone to your positions and proceed according to the original plan."

At this moment, Zhang Yiming raised his hand.

"Yiming, speak."

“President Chen, public attention is time-limited. Once we are completely silenced, as time goes on, the relative strength of our voices will diminish, and we will be in a completely passive position. It will be difficult to turn things around then.”

"The heat surrounding this incident won't die down," Chen Mo said with absolute certainty.

"How is this possible?" Not only Zhang Yiming, but also Zhou Yuan, Chen Rui and others looked puzzled.

In their view, once the platforms behind them collectively fall silent, the wave of public opinion will naturally subside over time, especially for an extremely sensitive topic like Ant Group's IPO.

"You're the ones being summoned for questioning," Chen Mo said in a low voice, but with a calm and collected air of control, "excluding me."

The group was taken aback at first, then a glint flashed in their eyes, as if they had caught something.

Chen Mo narrowed his eyes slightly and slowly said, "Next, I will lead the charge."

"You just need to do your own thing, the sky won't fall down."

"Even if it really collapses—" He paused, his voice as steady as a rock, "I'll hold it up."

What makes a leader a leader is that when faced with a collapsing mountain, he can step forward without hesitation and shoulder the heavy burden.

The generals' eyes burned with fervor, and they responded in unison, "Understood!"

After the meeting ended, everyone left quickly, but Chen Tong was left behind.

What did 36Kr say?

"We raised the price again, and they agreed."

“Very good.” Chen Mo nodded. “I’ll start by cheering, but to truly create a wave, we’ll need the strength of your ‘naval’.”

"no problem!"

"Starting today, keep all the hype going until the 18th."

"The 18th?" Chen Tong was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized that it was the opening day of the Summer Davos Forum (the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum).

A chilling thought struck him, and he almost blurted out, "You...you were going to do it at that time."

Chen Mo did not answer directly, but turned to look out the window.

As the east turned white, dawn inevitably arrived.

He muttered to himself, as if stating a given fact: "I have already instructed the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion to begin preparing the draft."
Now, let's see what move the opponent makes next.

At 10:00 AM sharp, the official bombshell was detonated on time.

The "Notice on Rectifying and Punishing Problems in the Hot Search Ecosystem of Multiple Platforms in Accordance with the Law" quickly swept across the entire internet.

The announcement was strongly worded, pointing out that platforms such as Douyin, Zhihu, Banana, and Bilibili "failed to strictly implement their main responsibility for information content management," and that they "continued to present multiple privacy-related hype, unverified negative rumors about companies, and trivial information" in key areas such as trending topics, which "seriously disrupted the order of online communication and damaged the online ecosystem."

In accordance with the Cybersecurity Law and other relevant regulations, the platform was subject to measures such as "interviews, rectification within a specified period, warnings, suspension of updates to some channels and columns, fines, and handling of responsible persons."

The relevant platforms were also required to "reflect deeply and rectify immediately" and "earnestly fulfill their corporate responsibilities."

The single stone stirred up a huge wave of controversy, causing an immediate uproar. "What happened? How come these companies were suddenly all taken down at once?"

"If anyone should be summoned for questioning, it should be Xiaohongshu, Sina Weibo, and Kuaishou. One sells anxiety, one is worse than the stinking entertainment industry, and one is vulgar. They won't meet with the good ones, only the bad ones."

"Were all those big rumors from yesterday false? Were they debunked?"

"No! Quite the opposite! The bigger the commotion, the more it proves the melon is ripe! This is for real!"

"Luckily, I was quick enough to save the videos!"

"The power behind the ability to silence these major platforms simultaneously is terrifying!"

Before netizens could recover from their shock, the major platforms that were named issued response announcements almost simultaneously with the escalation of the public opinion.

The main theme is someone who stands at attention and obeys orders, and the content format is largely the same.

"Recently, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) summoned us for talks and imposed penalties for mismanagement of our platform's trending topics list."

We sincerely accept this, learn profound lessons, and earnestly implement the rectification requirements.

In accordance with the requirements of relevant departments, we immediately established a special working group for rectification, promoted the special governance of the hot search list ecosystem, and further improved the management capabilities of the hot search list.

Under the guidance of relevant departments, we will learn from this experience, draw inferences from it, and earnestly fulfill our primary responsibility for information content management and our social responsibility.

At the same time, we humbly accept the supervision of users and public opinion, and actively maintain a clean and healthy cyberspace.

Immediately afterwards, people discovered that the various explosive news and discussions that were trending on major platforms yesterday were like a flash in the pan.

This stark contrast, from a flourishing of diverse ideas to complete silence overnight, has caused immense discomfort and backlash among countless users.

Netizens who tried to post comments quickly discovered that some of their posts were instantly blocked by the infamous 404 error code.

Let them realize that this time it's for real.

This experience, on the contrary, greatly stimulated the public's imagination and desire to explore.

When one road is blocked, people will naturally flock to another road.

Just as Chen Mo had accurately predicted, public sentiment and online traffic quickly surged to platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Sina Weibo, and Kuaishou.

The discussion was not suppressed; on the contrary, it intensified due to the platform's strong intervention, quickly expanding from a few specific incidents yesterday to questioning and heatedly debating the larger issue of the "Other Shore" platform today.

The renewed outbreak and shift in public opinion overwhelmed the management of these platforms, with their phones ringing off the hook with inquiries from their operations teams. This left them caught off guard and in a state of panic.

They knew full well that the trigger for the rectification of the Biyuan Group was these sensitive contents. If their platform let it go unchecked, it would undoubtedly be challenging the authority of the regulators and putting themselves in an extremely dangerous situation.

Moreover, these waves of public opinion directly target the Achilles' heel of their own important financial backers, and for both public and private reasons, they must suppress them forcefully.

However, they found that all conventional methods seemed to have lost their effectiveness at this moment.

It feels like they're facing a tsunami, with wave after wave crashing down. Just when they manage to get through one wave, even more intense and powerful waves quickly emerge.

This puts immense pressure on operations staff, leaving them constantly on the go.

Beneath this surface-level battle of public opinion, a deeper and larger-scale capital alliance was being orchestrated by Lao Ma.

Several major capital institutions have abandoned their previous low-key approach and have begun to make frequent and clear public statements.

Yunfeng, Chunhua and other institutions have issued statements through their official websites or authoritative financial media, unanimously expressing their "firm support for relevant policies to regulate the development of platform companies" and their "active support for various measures to create a clean cyberspace".

The statements are worded rigorously and consistently, all emphasizing that "platform companies should strictly abide by the bottom line of laws and regulations" and "should play an active role in maintaining the stability of the network and financial markets."

Some of the statements were particularly pointed, stating bluntly that "the behavior of certain companies that abuse their market dominance for personal gain and maliciously manipulate public opinion to damage the industry ecosystem must be curbed."

Even Xu Jiayin, the former chairman of Evergrande who has rarely spoken out on such matters, reposted the relevant report on Sina Weibo and added the following text:

"Capital should be compassionate, but it must also have a bottom line. Supporting regulation and embracing compliance is the only truly responsible attitude towards the industry."

Below the text is an image of the rising sun struggling to pierce through layers of dark clouds, carrying a profound meaning.

This rectification incident has also quickly attracted great attention from the international capital market.

Goldman Sachs Asia technology sector analyst said: "This is another important signal of the normalization of internet public opinion supervision in China."

In the short term, content moderation costs for platforms will increase, potentially impacting profitability; however, in the long term, a clear regulatory framework will help improve the governance and sustainable development capabilities of Chinese internet companies.

In its latest research report, Morgan Stanley pointed out that this crackdown further demonstrates the importance that Chinese regulators attach to the quality of internet content, and it is expected that various platforms will accelerate their investment in algorithm optimization and manual review.

This will drive the industry towards a more standardized and healthy direction.

Meanwhile, similar arguments are quietly circulating in some top-tier private clubs.

The atmosphere at Lakeside Academy was even more vibrant.
(End of this chapter)