On July 25, Geely opened the official Weibo account of Geely’s Legal Affairs Department on Weibo. At the same time, the official also released the first blog post, and the main content of the blog post is a reward information.
The official pointed out that recently, it has noticed that on various types of information and audio and video platforms in the Internet field, there are concentrated, planned and organized relevant contents that maliciously belittle, pull down and slander our company’s brand and products. In order to respond to the call of the national Qinglang action and defend the legitimate rights and interests of the enterprise. Now, we officially launch a clue collection to the vast number of netizens and all sectors of society. For any clues and evidence related to insults, slander, rumors and slander against Geely, if verified by the Geely Legal Affairs Department to be true, effective, legally sourced and recognized by the relevant judicial authorities, a reward of 50,000 to 2 million RMB will be given according to the value of the clues and evidence, and the personal information of the clue provider will be strictly kept confidential.
For the post of Geely’s Legal Affairs Department, Geely’s official Weibo also forwarded and commented that: work together to create a civilized and healthy network environment.
In fact, in 2022, Geely Automobile launched the Geely Online False Information Reporting Center. At that time, the official said that for a long time, online rumors have had many adverse impacts on the brand image of Geely Automobile and the online communication order. As an important window for Geely Automobile to defend the image of Chinese national automobile brands and maintain a healthy online ecological environment, the Geely Online False Information Reporting Center accepts the vast number of netizens to provide clues and evidence related to operations such as insults, slander, rumors and slander against Geely. If verified by the reporting center to be true, effective, legally sourced and recognized by the relevant judicial authorities, a maximum reward of 1 million RMB will be given according to the value of the clues and evidence, and the personal information of the clue provider will be strictly kept confidential.
The main contents involved in the acceptance are: deliberately collecting negative or misleading information about Geely Automobile to write “black drafts” for extortion; fabricating false information to smear Geely Automobile and damaging business reputation. Rubbing against social hotspots, playing “edge balls” to damage the image of Geely Automobile, fabricating sensational titles involving Geely Automobile and causing public anxiety and uneasiness; using the names and institutions of authoritative people to issue rumors about Geely Automobile to mislead the public; and other online false information that damages the brand image of Geely Automobile.
This time, the official opening of the Geely Legal Affairs Department has also received the support of many netizens. Many netizens said that the online space is not a place outside the law, and the behavior of fabricating false information should be severely cracked down.
It is worth mentioning that with the rapid development of new energy vehicles, automakers are also paying more and more attention to this area of online public opinion. In recent years, many automakers have successively opened official accounts of the Legal Affairs Department. For example, BYD opened the “BYD News Anti-Counterfeiting Office” to maintain the brand image of BYD. Great Wall Motors launched a Clean Network Action and offered a reward of 10 million RMB. Tesla, as an electric vehicle giant, also took the lead in opening the Tesla Legal Affairs Department in 2021. After that, domestic new car-making forces such as NIO, Li Auto, XPeng Motors, Leapmotor and Zeekr have also successively opened the Legal Affairs Department.
Of course, the opening of the Legal Affairs Department and the launch of the Online False Information Reporting Center and the Clean Network Action by automakers. Behind these measures are undoubtedly all to maintain the image of the enterprise itself. After all, the establishment of the Legal Affairs Department and the launch of the Online False Information Reporting Center, etc., have a certain deterrent effect, and will also have a certain restrictive effect on the false news on the network, and can safeguard rights and voice more effectively.
Nowadays, the network is becoming more and more developed, and the brand maintenance of automakers does not only rely on the user word-of-mouth, and the impact of online public opinion on automakers is also very large, and sometimes even the sales volume of models will be affected due to some online public opinion. The “Legal Affairs Department” and the “Online False Information Reporting Center” have gradually become the “tools” for automakers to safeguard their rights, hoping to maintain their legitimate rights and interests by establishing these departments and making the network information more transparent.
