Insta360 China Head Exposes Paid Smear Campaign: Trolls Earn Just ¥6 Per Post
Yuan Yue, head of Insta360's China operations, has published a detailed exposé revealing an organized astroturfing campaign targeting the company during an ongoing patent lawsuit. An undercover user infiltrated a troll group of over 80 members, uncovering that participants paid a ¥20 entry fee and earned only ¥6 per negative post. Insta360 has filed a police report and is offering bounties ranging from ¥666 to ¥10,000 for actionable tips, with a grand prize of a ¥100,000 solid-gold slipper for the most valuable lead.
Highlights
- Insta360 China head Yuan Yue publicly exposed an organized troll network of 80+ members that was paid to post negative content about the company during a patent lawsuit.
- An undercover user paid a ¥20 entry fee to infiltrate the troll group and found that each smear post earned participants just ¥6 in compensation.
- Insta360 has filed a formal police report over the astroturfing campaign and cited difficulties in tracing the operation's financial flows.
- Insta360 is offering verified tip bounties of ¥666–¥10,000, plus a ¥100,000 solid-gold slipper as the grand prize for the most valuable lead submitted to its legal team.
- The troll accounts were identifiable by near-identical IP addresses, profile content, posting times, and word-for-word scripted attack copy used across multiple platforms.
Insta360 China Head Exposes Paid Troll Network: Just ¥6 Per Smear Post
Reported by IT之家, June 17
Yuan Yue, head of Insta360's China operations, has published a lengthy post revealing that an organized troll network has been waging a coordinated online smear campaign against the company, timed to coincide with an ongoing patent litigation case.
Copy-Paste Attacks: Same IPs, Same Scripts
Yuan noted that the suspicious accounts displayed striking uniformity: overlapping IP addresses, nearly identical profile content, synchronized posting times, recycled talking points, and even similar lifestyle aesthetics.
Industry observers had already flagged the suspicious activity before the launch of the Luna Ultra action camera — a flood of near-identical posts from accounts that, while clearly low-quality, appeared in overwhelming numbers. The scripted attack lines, unchanged down to punctuation marks, plastered comment sections across major platforms like spam advertisements that couldn't be removed.
Undercover User Infiltrates the Group: ¥20 Entry Fee Required
The scheme was blown open by an ordinary user who came across a video on a Chinese video platform criticizing the Luna Ultra. The video's creator openly stated: "This is a paid advertisement — DM me if you want in."
The user reached out, paid a ¥20 broker fee, and was admitted to a group chat with more than 80 members who were actively competing to claim paid assignments targeting Insta360. The group administrator would post pre-written attack copy, and members simply had to copy and publish it verbatim.
Despite the public perception that running troll operations is highly profitable, the reality was far more modest: each published post earned just ¥6. Recalling that Insta360's legal department had previously solicited public tips on astroturfing activity, the undercover user compiled the entire experience into a ZIP archive and submitted it directly to Insta360's legal team.
Insta360: Difficult to Pursue, But Police Report Filed
Yuan acknowledged that troll networks are notoriously difficult to combat — they operate in the shadows, their financial flows are hard to trace, and they deliberately exploit loopholes in laws that deal with low-value individual offenses. Nevertheless, Insta360 has filed a formal police report in connection with the incidents.
Bounties Announced: Up to a ¥100,000 Solid-Gold Slipper
Yuan announced that Insta360 will roll out a "Clean Internet Initiative" campaign at select offline retail stores nationwide, where walk-in customers can claim a ¥6 red envelope and a pledge card promoting responsible online behavior.
Members of the public with relevant leads can also submit tips directly to Insta360's legal department. Verified, actionable information will be rewarded with cash bounties ranging from ¥666 to ¥10,000.
In a headline-grabbing move, Yuan revealed via Weibo that Insta360 has commissioned a solid-gold slipper valued at ¥100,000 as the ultimate grand prize, to be awarded to whoever provides the most valuable tip.
Related Reading:
- Yuan Yue on Winning the ITC Section 337 Final Ruling: "We Spent Over US$10 Million to Beat a Lawsuit Filed in Bad Faith"
- Insta360 China Head Yuan Yue Announces ¥100,000 Gold Commemorative Prize to Combat Astroturfing
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