While influencer marketing dominates the digital age, platforms are increasingly banning creators for peddling fabricated content. In an industry ruthlessly driven by capital and engagement metrics, how can authentic content ethics possibly survive?
In 2024, Zhang Junjie—an influencer who had dedicated five years to promoting intangible cultural heritage—was exposed for orchestrating multiple fabricated videos, sparking fierce backlash from his followers. This scandal saw the once-celebrated creator fall from grace overnight, dealing a devastating blow to his public image.
Confronted by public outrage, he confessed: “The vast majority of scenes in our content do not feature actual locals from the depicted villages. Instead, they are simply private rooms rented within those villages, repurposed entirely as sets for short videos and live streams.”
This staged authenticity not only shattered the trust he had built with his audience but also laid bare the hidden scars of the broader digital content industry. As China’s social media and live-streaming platforms expand at breakneck speed, an ever-growing number of hopefuls are flocking to the influencer sector. When capital and traffic dictate the rules, how can ethical content creation possibly endure?
In an online environment where “traffic is king”, certain influencers willingly sacrifice public trust and social fairness for short-term gains, deliberately fabricating events to harvest engagement and financial reward. This fanatical pursuit of immediate metrics is pushing content creation to the edge of a moral precipice.
The 2024 White Paper on the Development of China’s Influencer Economy reports that 68% of top-tier creators faced content interference from brands last year, with 23% ultimately compromising to meet brand demands. These figures expose the stark vulnerability of influencers when confronted with commercial capital.
Documents from leading MCN (Multi-Channel Network) agencies reveal that 70% of topics generated by their signed influencers must undergo “commercial compliance reviews”—a process that essentially clears the path for product placements. The collision between commercial motives and authentic content creates a profound ethical dilemma that ultimately damages the influencers themselves.
As Zhang Junjie points out: “Many brands recognise influencer partnerships as a highly effective marketing strategy. Whilst working with creators is a powerful tool for brands, it comes at a cost: it occasionally compromises content authenticity and independent creation.”
This underlying contradiction has triggered the most severe issues within the live-streaming e-commerce sector. According to data from iiMedia Research, the market size of China’s live-streaming e-commerce swelled to over 4.5 trillion yuan in 2024. However, negative consumer reports regarding false advertising and product discrepancies accounted for a staggering 38% of total complaints.
Caught between these opposing forces, creators face the necessity of maintaining financial stability to produce high-quality work, which inevitably competes against commercial pressures that threaten to erode audience trust. “Capital exerts a control that manipulates people like puppets on strings,” Zhang reveals.
He disclosed a brutal industry reality: “Last month, an agency withheld a peer’s salary because she refused to promote a substandard, hormone-laced face mask during her live stream. Industry participants are forced to navigate unwritten rules that pit financial gain against personal morality.”
Consequently, finding methods that satisfy business requirements without compromising content authenticity has become paramount. Zhang notes that clients frequently prefer to massage data, artificially inflating a modest 100 sales into a “viral hit of 100,000+”. Even worse, “food companies demand influencers post negative reviews of their competitors as part of cutthroat rivalry, leading to a noticeable spike in litigation.”
Consumers are awakening; they now demand genuine, valuable sharing that transcends basic commercial marketing. Zhang has personal experience with this: “During last year’s Double 11 shopping festival, I bought a skincare product touted by an influencer as ‘specifically for sensitive skin’, which ended up causing a severe allergic reaction.”
Scrolling through a collection of over 20 influencer review videos on his phone, he remarks, “Nowadays, I much prefer seeing content clearly labelled as a ‘paid partnership’. At least then, you know exactly what constitutes an advert.”
In response to this crisis of trust, Zhang’s team implemented rigorous assessment protocols, resulting in repurchase rates well above the market average. “I reach 5 million viewers through my live streams; every recommendation shapes their purchasing decisions. Our team reviews 200 partnership proposals a month, yet fewer than 10 are ever approved.” After demanding unedited production footage from brands, Zhang’s team conducts independent material testing and consumer surveys on the products.
To integrate advertisements without tarnishing content authenticity, he filmed a video series titled Sustainable Living Lab, naturally embedding products into practical, real-world scenarios like waste sorting and upcycling. “Viewers care about the inherent value of the content, not the adverts themselves,” he adds. “When your knowledge output is sufficiently professional, commercial collaborations simply become a natural extension of your content.”
During live broadcasts, Zhang has taken to showing viewers factory production lines. Watching the sea cucumber harvesting process unfold live reduced audience scepticism by 80%. Furthermore, he developed a cost-disclosure mechanism, providing detailed pricing breakdowns that cover raw materials and processing expenses. Although his industry peers sharply criticised this transparent approach, it ultimately drove his seafood brand’s annual sales past 120 million yuan.
“Learning to say no is far more important than learning how to perform,” Zhang states. Thanks to his insistence on disclosing pesticide residue data, his sales conversion rates successfully bucked the trend, surpassing the peer average. This shift validated his core belief: “Traffic is merely an amplifier; the core must be sincerity.”
The industry is currently shedding its superficial glamour. With the implementation of the Provisions on the Governance of the Online Content Ecology in early 2025, review content will be legally required to disclose the sample size tested, and product placements must be clearly labelled 10 seconds in advance.
Zhang explains: “We are currently developing an ethical evaluation model, using Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology to identify hidden false advertising.” He has recently been certified with a new “Transparent Supply Chain” ethical label by a public welfare organisation. Concurrently, an ingredient traceability plug-in developed by his team has been integrated across three major platforms. Users can now view the entire product supply chain with a single click.
As he predicts: “With the post-80s and post-90s generations becoming the primary consumer force, they may enjoy a gimmick, but they are fundamentally more serious. Sooner or later, influencers will realise that whilst you can fool an algorithm, you cannot fool people’s hearts.”
The influencer industry is transitioning between two distinct phases: from barbaric, unchecked growth to professional, deep cultivation. The figures struggling between ethics and traffic are illuminating the path toward the transformation of China’s influencer economy.
An increasing number of influencers are shouldering the responsibility of disclosure. By transparently declaring partnerships to his followers, Zhang ensures paid promotion disclaimers are included in his video descriptions. He points out: “Transparency is absolutely essential because it establishes a far stronger framework for interaction.”
When asked how future creators should position themselves, Zhang reflected: “Every internet user must find a way to generate income without sacrificing their core beliefs. Ultimately, we will return to the original essence of content creation.”
“No shift in format should ever compromise the consistent, essential value of the content itself.”