Author: Spiral Researcher

This is a conference of unity and victory.

At the meeting, Guo Kaitian, senior vice president of Tencent Group, emphasized that Tencent welcomes any person of insight to participate in the theoretical construction and route exploration of "technology for good". The original words are as follows:

"We are still groping for the understanding of kindness. There is no fixed standard. It is a wish, an original intention, and also our future direction and goal. I hope we can On this road, let’s work hard and explore together with our friends, experts, scholars, and leaders.”

On January 9, 2021, in the "Tencent Technology Direction." At the "Good and Digital Future Conference 2021", Guo Kaitian's above statement was quite modest. In fact, before this passage, he had already elaborated on Tencent’s full understanding of “technology for good” in three points, believing that “it should be the one principle that Chinese society and even human society should remain unwavering in as we move towards a digital future.” Basic principles.”

There are not many Chinese companies that dare to chart the course for the future of human society, and Tencent is one of them. Not everyone agrees with Tencent’s setting up a flag like this. Some Internet observers believe that Tencent can be responsible for doing good on its own. The formulation of “technology for good” is a bit unreasonable and even overstepping its bounds.

This may be different from China’s official understanding of the Internet ecology. The reason why China's mobile Internet industry has been able to overtake others in a corner, go overseas, and compete with Western powers in the past ten years is inseparable from China's encouragement of technological innovation and its modest management style - except in areas such as national security. In addition, the new generation of entrepreneurs has always had a bright future.

Relevant departments define the ideal network environment as "the construction of network ethics and network civilization must be strengthened, moral education and guidance should be exerted, and the outstanding achievements of human civilization should be used to nourish network space and repair the network ecology."

To ensure safety, serve the people, restore integrity to the Internet, and rebuild a healthy ecology, this is the official understanding of the Internet spirit. If the Internet is like a big pond, after clearing out the muddy water and trash fish and rotten shrimps, the country should remain vigilant enough about the financial risks hidden by large monopoly capital and the innate impulse of capital to control public opinion. This is the intended meaning of the question.

Perhaps, the country should be the caller of “science and technology for good”. After Tencent has strengthened its right to invent and exclusive rights to this slogan for many years, many people will wonder: who has the final say about what is "good".

This is probably the scene Tencent has been trying to strengthen. After half a month of research, we found that Tencent’s proposal of “technology for good” is by no means a whim. From the birth of "Technology for Good" to the fact that it has become a common phrase among the public, Tencent's huge and powerful publicity system has been indispensable. It has also become an unquestionable truth that permeates the daily lives of tens of thousands of Tencent employees.

Some media reported that Ma Huateng has always demanded that "technology for good" be written into Tencent's history. In fact, he could be more confident and delete the words "Tencent's".

"The route is a guideline, and the guideline is a guideline." The power center of Tencent, mainly born in the 1960s and 1970s, will know this famous saying of the great man. Perhaps, it is precisely based on the profound understanding of this golden saying that "technology for good" has become popular all over the world.

"Technology for good" was first born out of the thinking of the Silicon Valley elite in the United States on the relationship between technology and human beings. Neil Postman, who once became famous all over the world with "Amusing Ourselves to Death", has long-term writing theme of how to reconcile the relationship between technology and "goodness".

Perhaps this relationship is irreconcilable and can only be adjusted gradually. In the process of adjustment, the Western technology community has gradually established some basic principles. For example, Google claims to "don't be evil." However, this does not prevent Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook from being involved in ethical turmoil many times, and they have also encountered repeated monopoly investigations. and fines.

It’s not that these big guys don’t have as much funding as Tencent, or they can’t hire a good team, but they rarely have the urge to educate the industry and society. In China, a giant that has been involved in many controversies and wars of words and is accustomed to quelling negative reviews with lawsuits is eager to raise the microphone of "goodness" in the name of technology.

At this point, Tencent may go further than Alibaba. Jack Ma has been a teacher and has always liked to be called a teacher by those around him, but he does not seem to position himself as some kind of moral prophet or preacher. He prefers to be inspirational and methodological.

It wouldn’t be surprising if Ma Huateng, who is regarded as a Buddhist and low-key by the outside world, looks down on Jack Ma’s style.

Judging from the reports currently available, the Tencent version of "Technology for Good" made its grand debut in January 2018 at the "Technology for Good 2018·Overload" forum, then Tencent Group Executive Director and Chief Technology Officer Zhang Zhidong delivered a speech "In the era of information overload, how can technology do good?" ", the incision is relatively small;

In January 2019, at the "Technology for Good 2019·Refresh" forum, Guo Kaitian delivered a speech on "Creating the Cornerstone of Trust in a Digital Society";

In March 2019, during the National "Two Sessions", Ma Huateng submitted the proposal "Recommendations on Strengthening the Construction of Science and Technology Ethics and Implementing the Concept of Science and Technology for Good", trying to include "Science and Technology for Good" as a national policy;

2019 In April, the General Office of Tencent identified "Technology for Good" as its new mission vision;

In May 2019, Ma Huateng forwarded a report on Tencent's Youtu Lab's AI technology to find missing children, reiterating that "Technology for Good" ";

On November 11, 2019, the 21st anniversary of Tencent's founding, Ma Huateng, Tencent President Liu Chiping and all members of the General Office sent an all-employee email to more than 40,000 employees, officially announcing Tencent's new mission vision as " User-oriented, Technology for Good" is also Tencent Culture Version 3.0;

On January 11, 2020, Tencent held a conference as usual and released the "Technology for Good White Paper 2020", which was summarized and archived.

On January 9, 2021, at the meeting where Guo Kaitian gave a speech at the beginning of the article, Tencent released the "Technology for Good White Paper 2021".

At this point, Tencent’s overall situation of “technology for good” has been determined. These four words have become one of the buzzwords on the Internet in China. Almost every central media has published or broadcast reports and comments on "Technology for Good", most of which mentioned Tencent.

Like any kind of human ideological line, Tencent’s “Technology for Good” also has an iterative upgrade process. Three years ago, Zhang Zhidong proposed "Technology for Good", which was still a new term used to solve narrow problems. Four years later, Guo Kaitian's discussion of "Technology for Good" has become a system that can inspire the world.

Human history has proven time and again that once an organization or a line has sufficient human and financial resources, it will spontaneously seek to grow and compete with the existing power structure and discourse system. Tencent's "Technology for Good" is naturally no exception.

Among them, Tencent Research Institute and Tencent Think Tank, which are nicknamed the "Tencent Academy of Social Sciences" by Tencent people, have contributed a lot. Tencent Research Institute is Tencent’s internal organization, while Tencent Think Tank includes China’s current front-line experts and scholars, writers, and opinion leaders in various disciplines, serving as Tencent’s external brain and spokesperson.

Obviously, under this mechanism, China’s top intellectuals are seamlessly connected with the strongest corporate financial resources, and with the blessing of multi-dimensional channels, Tencent’s decision-makers believe that public opinion must be dealt with In a crisis, you can basically go back immediately.

Even if the uninformed central media faces this hidden formation, they may not be able to gain the upper hand.

In early July 2017, a number of central media including People's Daily criticized Tencent's game "Honor of Kings" several times within a few days, calling for strengthening the supervision of online games at the national level and supervising operations. The party optimizes personnel review and payment mechanisms to effectively protect the growth of minors.

Tencent’s response is quite methodical. The manuscript originally published by Tencent Think Tank’s official account and published by an expert on adolescent psychology from the Academy of Social Sciences about playing games to promote social interaction has been reprinted by countless websites.

The "Everyone" column of Tencent, known as the "first column" in China, intensively promotes some arguments and unspecified challenges to the views of People's Daily Online, such as:

Communication Studies Scholar Hu Yong published "Don't Fight the Lifestyle of Teenagers";

The famous professor Ge Jianxiong, one of the first two liberal arts doctors trained in New China, published "Ge Jianxiong: Who would be stupid enough to pass "The King" "Glory" to study history? ";

Psychological expert Tang Yinghong published "Psychological Compensation Measures for Not Allowing Children to Play Mobile Games", believing that "Glory of Kings is a social tool for children."

In addition to mass communication, Tengyun Think Tank also urgently organized an expert seminar, jointly organized with the National Conditions Survey and Big Data Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Looking at how Chinese culture goes overseas from "Glory of the King"), to promote the "Glory of the King" The success is interpreted as the latest conquest of the West by China’s cultural soft power.

Under a wave of manipulation, on July 13, 2017, Xinhua News Agency announced that it would organize an e-sports competition. The next day, Ma Huateng visited People's Daily Online. Stable.

After Tencent showed off its muscles this time, it filed a series of lawsuits against some media and self-media who continued to criticize Tencent games after the incident. According to media reports, Tencent’s claims ranged from hundreds of thousands of yuan to Ranging from 10 million yuan.

This combination of punches has eliminated most of the criticism against Tencent Games in the public Internet space. Tencent Games once again encountered trouble. In 2018, the domestic game industry encountered a suspension of version number approvals, and the country once again optimized and refined online game management in order to protect young people.

The process of continuous whitewashing of Tencent Games is also the process of the Tencent Research Institute, Tengyun Think Tank, and later the Game Research Institute and other systems continuously strengthening "technology for good".

Tencent understands that as long as "Technology for Good" is familiar to Chinese people, and allows Tencent to firmly grasp the definition of "good" and continue to interpret and introduce new things, it will always be able to reap valuable benefits. Escort Tencent’s giant task force fleet.

In the theories of Le Bon and Goebbels, the word "repetition" is infinitely respected. If repeated enough, anything can become truth. The Chinese people are unaware that "technology for good" has entered their homes, which is a typical example.

In addition to subtly repeating it, Tencent is also unambiguous when it comes to finding a big celebrity platform. According to Tencent Research Institute’s own introduction materials, “Since September 2019, Tencent Research Institute has begun to conduct in-depth interviews with global industry and academic leaders, focusing on the issues of “What is technology for good” and “How to understand technology for good?” And seek insights and knowledge. Including the most famous network sociologist Professor Castor, Professor Margarita, founder of Stanford Peace Technology Laboratory, entrepreneur/Silicon Valley investor Mr. Shao Yibo, Sogou founder and CEO Mr. Wang Xiaochuan, Peking University National School of Development Ms. Chen Chunhua, Dean of BiMBA Business School, Professor Qiu Zeqi from the Department of Sociology at Peking University, Professor Jin Jianbin from the Department of Communication at Tsinghua University, Professor Zhang Jiang from the Department of Systems Science at Beijing Normal University, Professor Fei Jun from the School of Design at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, etc., from different backgrounds and majors Set off and shared their thoughts. "

According to our compilation, there are at least a dozen big names who have appeared publicly this time, including Wu Xiaobo, the author of "Tencent Biography". When asked by the Tencent Research Institute about the social role of the Internet, Wu Xiaobo seemed to go off topic and said: "There is no absolute 'platform openness'.

At that time, Tencent was facing pressure from public opinion about monopoly and closed platform. Wu Xiaobo’s views are undoubtedly welcomed by Tencent Research Institute.

It is not difficult to see from the above cases that "technology for good" is not so much Tencent's vision and mission as it is a sharp blade that Tencent relies on to cut into the Chinese discourse system. In other words, Tencent’s security and interests are the vision and mission of “Technology for Good”.

Therefore, if "technology for good" is included in Tencent's interest structure, we will get a clearer glimpse of the true meaning of the multiple collaborations between Tencent Research Institute and Tencent Cloud Think Tank, as well as Tencent's public relations department and content department.

For example, no one will believe a commercial company that insists on monopolizing itself if it says "doing good". So the best way is to redefine "monopoly" in the same way as explaining the right to define "good".

Tencent attaches great importance to monopoly. As early as ten years ago after the 3Q war, Tencent hired Wang Xiaoye, the most authoritative anti-monopoly expert in the country, as a consultant. Professor Wang has repeatedly provided theoretical support for Tencent's ownership of user data, and finally formed the theory that the rights and interests of user data belong to Tencent. This has not only become a weapon for Tencent to respond to the current anti-monopoly calls, but also made it easier for "technology to do good".

However, on the Internet, many industry scholars have questioned Wang Xiaoye’s double standards and contradictions when it comes to Tencent’s antitrust topics. Her disciples have joined departments such as Tencent Research Institute and Tencent Think Tank, and her relationship with Tencent has been constantly mentioned.

When China’s top antitrust legal experts are recognized as Tencent sympathizers, it may make sense that Tencent has not fallen into antitrust risks like Alibaba. According to the introduction on the home page of the Tengyun Think Tank website, the think tank “brings together more than 500 domestic and foreign scholars and experts who are interested in Internet research.”

We have no way of grasping the detailed list of more than 500 domestic and foreign scholars and experts. Judging from the Internet-related remarks of the dozens of experts who appear most often, they either directly praise Tencent and "technology for good", or they side with Tencent in the focus of disputes.

There is no doubt that this is the most influential group on the Chinese Internet. Under the banner of "Technology for Good", this is a force that cannot be ignored.

Prior to this, no Chinese enterprise, including the large-scale state-owned enterprise of "*** and the eldest son of the country", had such a powerful configuration and such a short and powerful slogan. Even the Taishan Club, Zhenghe Island, Huaxia Alumni Association and China Entrepreneurs Club, where China's top business leaders gather, are not so aggressive in their right to speak.

Everything may originate from a philosophical metaphor, "Discourse is power", from the French philosopher and thinker Michel Foucault. In "The Order of Discourse", Foucault believed that discourse means a powerful social force that is dominant and servile to the subject of social practice, and is a dominant social force with the legislative function of justice. Social people who have been certified by this power are "qualified".

Based on this theory, when Tencent defines "technology for good", it is self-evident who has the final say as to who is "good" and who is "bad".

Tencent has actually started doing this a long time ago. On November 17, 2020, the official account of Tencent Research Institute issued an article "Judgement is a basic human right, but we are handing it over to algorithms."

In early December, Tencent released a conference press release titled "Tencent Vice President Chen Ju: All parties should jointly pursue "green GDP." These two tactics targeted the so-called "algorithm", implying that competing products were not in line with "green GDP", and the source of power was the "technology for good" system.

As a commercial company, Tencent does not have and should not have such qualifications and power. Therefore, Tencent's huge public relations team urgently needs to penetrate into every crevice of the social structure under China's national conditions, interact with real power, and even parasitize it and use its strength to fight.

At the end of March 2019, a Tencent recruitment notice that was later judicially notarized unabashedly demonstrated this dark logic. Tencent's official recruitment website has released a recruitment post for the position "27958 - Strategic Competitive Strategy Communications Manager". The requirements for the job description are as follows:

"1. Targeting unfair social information about competing products, you can Quickly mobilize central media and core media to spread public opinion, carry out effective counterattacks, form efficient social influence, and have in-depth relationships with Beijing and central-level media;

2. Be able to cooperate with various BGs to highlight the company The ability is exported to Party A's senior management in the form of internal reference and research reports, forming a favorable "high-level voice" in the company, with strong writing and analytical skills;

3. Focus on the concerns and concerns of the central high-level Government activities are planned and disseminated, and our company's strategic business demands are slowly embedded, which plays a role in catering and guiding policies, especially during the two sessions, it can guide the motion proposals of the National People's Congress deputies and CPPCC members to form a proposal that is beneficial to our company. The public opinion environment also formed a counterattack against competitors.”

After being exposed by the media, the head of Tencent’s public relations department denied that the recruitment was issued, but fortunately the media had a notarized letter confirming it.

Why does a company that claims to “use technology for good” need such a “competitive strategy communication manager”? Tencent has been silent on this.

With clear, powerful and step-by-step promotion, Tencent’s appeal of “technology for good” and its “high-level voice” have continued to grow. These two keywords have thus become the opposite of Tencent and Ma Huateng. Ma Huateng also launched a campaign to catch "black public relations" because of this, but it ended in a farce.

On June 20, 2018, Ma Huateng posted in WeChat Moments, "If it weren't for this mistake, many people would not realize how rampant black public relations are. It suddenly broke out in the past two months. I wanted to remain Buddhist. It’s okay to be patient, but it’s time to dig out the root cause,” and attached three screenshots.

Five days later, Tencent’s official Weibo released a message saying, “Many people involved in black public relations cases have been detained by the police, and some suspects have fled abroad. Tianwang is very careful, and we advise those who trample on the red line of the law to Surrender yourself as soon as possible."

According to Legal Daily, police investigation showed that the screenshots forwarded by Ma Huateng were directed by Zhang and Ren, the heads of Meng Media (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., to edit and process the original text and spread it for promotion. And left traces.

After Tencent reported the case, the police in a certain place detained Zhang and Ren on suspicion of picking quarrels and provoking trouble. But in fact, the publication and dissemination of the article involved in the case did not have much to do with "black public relations", but the original author, a middle school Chinese teacher in Shandong, fell into big trouble.

This teacher's online name is "Cheng Yan Wu Mei", but his real name is Yue Zengxue. He feels that his students are addicted to online games and ruined the doctor. Yue Zengxue has always been quite disgusted with online games. On June 6, 2018, Yue Zengxue issued an article questioning an organization’s “whitewashing” of Tencent’s online games, which was later forwarded by others.

After being named in Ma Huateng’s Moments and reported by Tencent, Yue Zengxue was once interrogated as a criminal suspect and also encountered malicious attacks and security threats. "Some people are trying to investigate through some channels whether I am a shady PR or whether I have been bribed to speak for others."

Some people even contacted Yue Zengxue, pretending to be a student's parent, trying to trick him into believing he was guilty of "black public relations". In Yue Zengxue's view, the one who really encountered "black public relations" should be himself.

Regarding the motivation for writing the article involved, Yue Zengxue wrote in an article, "I have witnessed how Internet addiction makes children disappear from the classroom and makes the flowers of youth wither. , I can’t stand the blood, tears and despair of my parents.”

The incident that prompted his writing was in May 2018, when eight central ministries and commissions issued a notice stating that they would increase their control of online games and other networks. Behavior supervision and rectification efforts. But a few days later, the "Research Report on China's Youth Internet Use and Network Security" was released. Tencent was listed as the researcher and co-publisher of the report, and the other unit was a national agency. This aroused Mr. Yue's dissatisfaction. Relief and anger.

However, who will ensure the safety of Yue Zengxue? At least, he was cautious in his later interviews with the media and was unwilling to say another word about Tencent.

On the other hand, two and a half years have passed, and neither Ma Huateng nor Tencent has made any further statements on this "black public relations" incident, and Yue Zengxue does not dare to provoke those he cannot afford to offend.

Perhaps the shortcut to "being good" is to eliminate those voices that say you are "not good"?

On the other side of what happened to Teacher Yue Zengxue, another teacher became a guest of Tencent.

On the evening of June 15, 2020, the official blog of Tencent’s game “Honor of Kings” announced that a new version of Three-Point Land will be launched soon. For this new version, Honor of Kings will join forces with Tencent’s New Cultural and Creative Research Institute , invited three senior cultural and historical experts to participate in the creation of the third-quarter version. The most famous among them is Ge Jianxiong, a senior professor of liberal arts at Fudan University, who serves as the academic advisor for King of Glory. In addition, Zhou Kui, associate professor of Communication University of China, and Zhu Hui, a literary and historical writer, serve as project guides for the Three-Point Land project.

Ge Jianxiong is not only a Beidou-level figure in the academic world, but also a star member of the national "Two Sessions" for many years. He is obviously a high-quality "Party A" for Tencent's public relations strategy manager. How he joins "Honor of Kings" is the real glory of this game.

Faced with doubts from the outside world, Professor Ge Jianxiong explained that he did not want to endorse this game, but just a platform. "Endorsement is to fully represent and promote its image and interests. The platform is to express affirmation and support on this specific occasion."

What many netizens find difficult to accept is that in 2017, Ge Jianxiong posted an article of support on Tencent's "Everyone" Tencent Games believes that young people should not learn history from games such as "Honor of Kings", and it is understandable that games make history irrelevant. Three years later, he became an academic consultant for the game.

So, should Chinese teenagers learn history from "Honor of Kings"? I guess the teenagers are confused.

China should not be confused. Although, when we look at the birth and rise of the discourse power of "technology for good", we see only the superficial appearance.

But is the future that all this foretells a brave new world?