The richest man started taking advantage of loopholes after joining Alibaba.

Shenzhen, Binhai Avenue.

The glass curtain wall of Tencent Building reflected a cold, hard light under the gloomy sky.

The atmosphere in the general office conference room on the 38th floor was somber.

Martin sat at the head of the table, holding a document he had just signed.

That is the upcoming "WeChat External Link Content Management Specification".

The document was thin, only three pages long.

But every word carries the scent of blood.

"Send it."

Martin tossed the documents to the PR director beside him, his voice flat and emotionless.

"Let the entire industry know that WeChat is not above the law. No matter who it is, even if they are Alibaba's 'own son,' anyone who crosses the line of inducing sharing will be dealt with without mercy."

"in addition."

Martin turned to the head of the security department and said, "The technical measures also need to be improved. Simply blocking links is not enough. Give me semantic recognition. As long as the link contains keywords such as 'cut a cut,' 'help,' or 'get it for free,' the server will directly block it."

"Better to kill ten thousand innocent people than let one guilty person go free."

This is an asymmetrical war.

As a super app with hundreds of millions of daily active users, WeChat possesses the power to make decisions from a god-like perspective.

If it says you've broken the rules, then you have broken the rules.

No trial, no appeal, just carry out the death penalty.

......

Five minutes later.

Pushed across the entire network.

[Breaking News! WeChat Releases Strictest New Rules on External Links: Incentive Sharing Prohibited, Violators Will Have Their Accounts Suspended!]

The release of this announcement triggered a major earthquake on the Chinese internet.

It's not just about micro-group buying.

Those micro-businesses, Taobao affiliates, and marketing accounts that relied on the WeChat ecosystem for survival were all wiped out in an instant.

Hangzhou, headquarters of Weiguang Media.

The operations center, which was once as bustling as a vegetable market, is now deathly silent.

on the big screen.

The once-promising flow curve looked as if it had been cleaved in two with a knife.

It fell vertically at a 90-degree angle.

Real-time Users: 12,000,000 -> 8,500,000 -> 3,200,000...

Hundreds of thousands of users are disconnected every second.

Customer service hotlines were instantly overwhelmed with calls:

"What's wrong? The link won't open!"

"My account has been banned! Is this your doing?"

"Liar! Give me back my hard-earned money!"

Fatty Wang slumped to the ground, his tablet computer slipping from his hand and falling to the side.

The screen was filled with red error message pop-ups:

Access to this webpage has been disabled.

[Account suspected of violating regulations; login restricted]

"It's over..."

Fatty Wang muttered to himself, his face ashen.

"Brother Che, this time it's really over. They didn't just block the road, they blew it up."

"I can't even send text messages anymore. As soon as I send the three words 'micro group buying,' the system automatically blocks it."

The entire office was filled with an atmosphere of despair.

The young operations staff looked at each other in bewilderment; some had already begun packing their things and preparing to leave.

In the face of absolute power, any skill seems pale and powerless.

Lin Che stood in front of the screen.

The red alarm light reflected on his face, flickering intermittently.

He held a cup of coffee that had long since gone cold, but hadn't taken a single sip.

"Blow up the road?"

Lin Che looked at the plummeting chart and a strange smile suddenly appeared on his lips.

"Fatty, have you ever seen an ant?"

"Huh?" Fatty Wang was stunned. Why bring up ants now?

What will the ants do when you seal the entrance to their nest with cement?

Lin Che turned around, his eyes flashing with a chilling madness.

"They will take a detour."

"If they can't get around it, they'll gnaw through the cement."

He walked up to a testing machine.

It was an Android phone with WeChat installed.

Lin Che opened the dialog box and typed in a string of characters.

It is not Chinese characters.

It's not in English either.

Instead, it was a string of seemingly illogical, even somewhat ugly, gibberish:

$WPT$ I'm a firecracker, help me cut a hole! 【David Tao】

(X_X) Copy this code and open the Taobao app to claim your reward!

"Martian language?" Fatty Wang's eyes widened. "This...isn't this something used by non-mainstream people?"

"right."

Lin Che pointed to the string of gibberish.

"WeChat's semantic recognition system is based on standard Chinese characters and English grammar. It can recognize 'cut one knife', but it cannot recognize 'cut one dao'."

"It can block domain names, but it can't block the clipboard."

This is a form of dimensional reduction attack.

Or, reverse dimensionality reduction.

By leveraging the early "niche culture" of the internet and using special symbols despised by the elites, they bypassed the most advanced artificial intelligence censorship.

"But......"

Fatty Wang hesitated. "Isn't this too troublesome? Users have to copy, switch apps, and open Taobao... The operation path is too long, the conversion rate will drop!"

According to internet product manager textbooks, every additional step in the process will result in a 50% user loss.

"That's for people living within the Fifth Ring Road."

Lin Che interrupted him, his voice cold and hard.

"Fatty, you still don't understand human nature."

He picked up the phone and slammed it heavily into Fatty Wang's hand.

"For an auntie who is willing to spend an hour comparing prices at three different stores just to save 5 yuan on postage."

"Let alone copying a piece of code."

"They were willing to hand-copy the Xinhua Dictionary as long as it saved money!"

"The so-called 'user experience' is worthless in the face of 'getting a bargain'."

Lin Che suddenly waved his hand, pointing to the group of panicked employees behind him.

"Get moving, everyone!"

"Activate Plan C!"

"Replace all the text with 'Martian language passwords'!"

"Encapsulate all links into 'Taobao links'!"

Tell users: This isn't a hassle, it's a secret code to getting it for free!

......

Ten minutes later.

A spectacular event unfolded on the Chinese internet.

The blocked links have disappeared from WeChat chat windows.

Instead, there was an overwhelming amount of colorful, garbled "garbled text" with all sorts of strange symbols.

I found a great deal on a group-buying platform, click to grab it! ￥￥

【(＞_＜) Please help me out, it'll only cost 0.1 yuan! Copy this message and open Taobao!】

Inside Tencent's monitoring room.

Zhao Liang was completely dumbfounded when he saw the "garbled text stream" that suddenly appeared on the screen.

"What...what the hell is this?"

"The semantic recognition system has failed! The system simply cannot understand the meaning of these symbols!"

"Besides, these aren't links, they're plain text! We can't exactly block users' chat functionality, can we?"

Blocking links is a management regulation.

Blocking text messages is an infringement on freedom of communication.

No matter how domineering Tencent is, it wouldn't dare to ban an account just because a user sent a string of gibberish.

"Block! Manually add keyword blocking!"

Zhao Liang roared.

But it was too late.

The wisdom of the masses is boundless.

They blocked "①", so they used "1".

After they blocked "Taobao", they started using "Moubao" and "Moubao".

Some people even use emojis instead of text.

And in various family groups in third- and fourth-tier cities.

Aunt Li Guifang, wearing her reading glasses, looked at the string of gibberish her nephew had sent her.

Although it's a bit strenuous and the operation is somewhat cumbersome.

But she still long-pressed each one to copy.

Then switch to Taobao.

"Ding!"

A pop-up window appeared automatically:

Congratulations! You have successfully helped your friend save 5 yuan using the password!

Successful.

That crisp notification sound was like the most beautiful music.

trouble?

No trouble.

What's a little trouble if I can make money?

......

8 PM.

Headquarters of Weiguang Media.

Fatty Wang trembled with excitement as he watched the curve on the big screen rise again.

Real-time Users: 9,800,000

Although it's lower than the peak, those who stayed are more active and more engaged.

Because they incurred "labor costs".

This is the sunk cost effect.

"Amazing..."

Fatty Wang looked at Lin Che standing in the shadows with eyes full of admiration.

"Brother Che, you're simply a god."

Lin Che held the cup of cold coffee in his hand and finally took a sip.

A bitter taste spread through my mouth.

"Not a god."

Lin Che stared at the wildly jumping gibberish on the screen.

That's a regression in aesthetics, a scar on internet civilization.

But he doesn't care.

"I just understand what 'survival' means better than Tencent does."

Lin Che put down his cup, his eyes deep and unfathomable.

"Penguins sit in air-conditioned rooms and make the rules."

"And we, wallowing in the mud."

"The one wearing shoes can never outrun the one who is barefoot."

He turned around, his back to the screen.

"We won this battle."

"But Tencent won't give up easily. They'll react quickly and upgrade their blocking system."

"so."

Lin Che looked at Fatty Wang.

"We need to use this window of opportunity to do something even bigger."

"Take these users who are willing to bypass the Great Firewall for cheaper access and turn them into our private assets."

"Notify Zhao Sihai."

Lin Che's voice was filled with murderous intent.

"Make him empty the warehouse in the west of the city."

"Those orders that were 'cut in price' will start shipping tomorrow."

"I want to show Tencent what happens even if the internet is blocked."

"They can't block packages in the real world either."