Recently, this blogger conducted an investigation on "online deletion" and found that "online deletion", also known as online public relations, has become a way for some people to make money. One company successfully removed client-specified negative news from several major websites in just one week. They charge more than 10,000 yuan for a single business. Their method is not magical to put it bluntly: they use advertising or other methods to let the media that published the report submit a deletion request to the website.
Ads from relevant companies will appear in the first few search results.
Internet deletion companies earn tens of thousands of dollars per order
Gongjia Huasheng is an information company that has been engaged in "network deletion" since the second half of 2008. Its advertisement is introduced as follows: quickly delete negative information and news on the Internet; quickly delete Baidu snapshots; quickly delete negative comments in major forums.
Mr. Liu, the person in charge of the company, said that since the company started this business, it has received an average of two orders per week, each with a business volume of more than 10,000 yuan, and the benefits are much better than simply doing information. At present, Mr. Liu is planning to increase staff and expand the scale.
Mr. Liu introduced to the blogger a business that the company had just completed.
Not long ago, a foreign tourist attraction was exposed by the media due to service quality issues and was reproduced by many websites. In order to eliminate negative reports online, they found Gongjia Huasheng.
As a result, Gongjia Huasheng Company removed negative reports about the attraction from several major websites in just one week.
An advertising company called Baolongren also launched a professional deletion business early last year.
Ms. Li, the person in charge of the company, said that their deletion business is very good. From the beginning of this year to now, they have received seven or eight orders, with the business amount reaching more than 200,000 yuan. They plan to abandon the advertising business and turn the company into a professional removal company.
On the Internet, the blogger also retrieved several personal ads that were professionally deleted.
One of them, Mr. Cui, commented on many abusive posts, saying that he could delete these bad posts and relieve the worries of the parties concerned.
This blogger got in touch with Mr. Cui. He introduced himself as the network administrator of a website. He is very familiar with the Internet and is best at deleting curse posts.
Each post will be charged 100 yuan and will be deleted within one day.
Recently, a female staff member at a toll station near Baoding was abused by individual netizens due to charging issues.
At the same time as this "cursing post" appeared online, professionally deleted advertising posts also appeared. The blogger selected a "professional removal company" and contacted it.
This blogger claims to be the person in charge of the toll station and hopes that the other party will help delete these "swearing posts".
The other party said there was no problem and promised that he could delete it within a day. The price was 100 yuan per post, but he had to pay first and then delete it. The payment method was to call his bank account.
This blogger expressed doubts about this approach and proposed to do a trial first, then pay 50%, and then pay the remaining amount after deleting everything.
The other party said that the test can be done, but it must be paid first and then deleted. He emphasized that this was a "rule."
Finally, the blogger and the other party selected a post describing the appearance of a female staff member for the experiment. The experiment lasted for one day.
The blogger checked online the next day and found that the selected post had been deleted.
Deleting content from Sina and Sohu will charge 10,000 yuan per transaction
A few days ago, in the name of a food factory, this blogger contacted Beijing Xinlu Advertising Company, which specializes in deletion, and asked the other party to delete negative reports about the factory from several major websites.
The other party said there was no problem, and then sent a price list to this blogger via email.
The price list shows that deleting content from Sina and Sohu charges the highest fees, with each transaction charging up to 10,000 yuan; others are charged according to different levels (see table).
The other party asked the blogger to tell him the content to be deleted, and then send him the company's business license and other qualifications in the form of photos.
The person said there was no need for an in-person interview and everything could be done online.
This blogger asked him to commit to deletion time and explain the deletion method. The other party promised to delete it within 3 days after receiving the money. As for the method, the other party said it was a commercial secret and could not be disclosed.
Delete the government notices in a measured manner and do not touch them
During the interview, this blogger learned that online professional deletions are very measured, and content cannot be deleted just by paying money.
The general principles they follow are: to delete abusive posts posted by unscrupulous netizens for money; to delete negative news, only media criticism, exposure, etc. reports and information will be deleted. As for negative news reported, criticized, and dealt with by government departments, no amount of money will be given to accept it.
In the name of a certain organization, this blogger contacted a professional deletion company and hoped that the other party would delete the negative information on the Internet about government departments dealing with this unit. However, the professional deletion company refused.
This blogger proposed to give more money, but the other party said: "It doesn't matter how much money you give, we won't touch anything involving the government or the law."
Another professional deletion company gave this blogger an idea: Make an in-depth inspection with the government department, ask the government department to contact the website, and request the website to be deleted. In short, they don't do this kind of deletion.
Claims that three methods include hacking techniques
Many professional deletion companies claim to be able to use a variety of methods to delete negative information from the Internet.
This blogger found that there are about three ways: 1. Coverage. That is to use positive content to cover the first few pages of the search engine; 2. Delete. That is to delete negative information through network management or network monitoring; 3. Hacking technology. It is to use hacking methods to enter sites with negative information and "optimize" the pages.
However, people familiar with the situation said that these so-called methods are purely false propaganda, especially using hacking technology to enter the site optimization page, which is simply impossible. In an interview a few days ago, staff from Baidu, Google and other websites said that there has not been any use of hackers to delete web page snapshots. Website staff said that whether it is an ordinary website or a search website, it is difficult for hackers to enter the background operation. If someone claims to be able to enter the background to operate, it is definitely a scam.
Eliminating negative information is good for media PR
Mr. Hu from Beijing Liyou Public Relations has been engaged in professional deletion for two years. Mr. Hu told this blogger that the so-called professional deletion is actually public relations deletion.
Mr. Hu revealed to this blogger that most of the information on the Internet is reproduced from other media. To delete negative information, you must find the original reporting media. The media will request deletion to the reposting network, and then the network will delete it. He said that public relations is actually public relations for the media.
He introduced that public relations companies generally adopt two methods for media public relations: one is to mobilize clients to place advertisements in the media; the other is to provide evidence to the media to prove that the negative information reported or released is inconsistent with the facts, and require the media to correct it immediately. Acceptance will immediately notify the network of deletion.
Mr. Hu confirmed that most of the online deletions he comes into contact with currently use this method. There are no other methods, let alone so-called hacking methods.