April 12, 2023

Xiaohongshu Marketing Content Violation Policy 2023 - Part One

A Beginner's Guide to Xiaohongshu Content Marketing: Staying on the Right Side of the Rules

It is important for brands and enterprises to be mindful of the types of violations that can occur when managing a Xiaohongshu account, particularly when it comes to content marketing. In the following sections, we will provide information on these violations and the platform’s content marketing rules. Our aim is to help users comprehend these rules, avoid misrepresentations, and enhance collaboration efficiency.

The sections covered will include:

Common Types of Xiaohongshu Content Marketing Violations
Xiaohongshu Content – Key Industry Policy
Xiaohongshu Offensive Keywords Guideline
Xiaohongshu Content – Frequently Asked Questions
Xiaohongshu Marketing Appendix

Common Types of Xiaohongshu Content Marketing Violations

Violation Type: 1. Falsehood
If the content of the Xiaohongshu note includes unverified false information, over-promises of product efficacy beyond the scope, or exaggerated promotion that can mislead other users.

Pseudoscience Type
The note publishes various inappropriate homemade products or other pseudoscientific content, such as using drugs or non-facial chemical products for beauty and skincare.

Exaggerated Advertising Type
For ordinary cosmetics/foods, do not over-promote the efficacy of special cosmetics/health foods, such as “whitening and spot-removing,” “enhancing immunity,” etc. Non-medical products or services also cannot over-promote disease prevention, auxiliary treatment efficacy or related medical terms beyond their capabilities.
Exaggerated Advertising Type
In a collaborative note, promising that the product or service can achieve an efficacy measured by a certain value within a certain period of time, such as “losing 20 pounds in a week,” “getting two degrees whiter in ten days,” etc.
Using exaggerated adjectives to describe the products or services, such as “national-level,” “highest-level,” “best,” etc. If there is a scope limitation before the exaggerated adjective, it is allowed moderately, such as “the best face cream in my mind,” “the highest-level car under the brand,” etc.

Endorsement Inducement Type
It is a violation to endorse products or services on the Xiaohongshu / RED platform, such as “Xiaohongshu didn’t cheat me” or “as expected from Little Red Book.” If not using the Xiaohongshu platform as the subject, only stating “saw it on Xiaohongshu ” or “there are many notes on Xiaohongshu,” etc. is moderately allowed.

Violation Type: 2. Fictitious Experience
There are two types of violations: Firstly, the blogger fabricates or steals others’ experiences to share; secondly, the brand uses highly similar routines for marketing and promotion, allowing bloggers to publish content produced by the brand as fake grass-roots experiences.

Marketing Routine
Multiple notes use similar routines and a unified content format for marketing and promotion. It is recommended that bloggers promote products directly and avoid creating stories or scenes to market and sell products. For example, the notes beside use vitamins to promote products.

Direct Posting
The blogger directly uses content produced by the brand and pretends to have a genuine consumption experience to post images and text. This behavior is fake and deceives and induces users. For example, multiple different bloggers’ notes show similar or identical facial images.

Stealing Others’ Experience
The note directly steals and uses materials from other notes on the platform, mixing them with their own notes to share, which greatly reduces credibility.

Fabricating Experience
The blogger’s notes contain fabricated sharing that is not their own experience. Sometimes, the note’s content does not match the blogger’s identity, greatly reducing credibility. For example, the same account’s identity is a mother in one note and then transforms into an old uncle in another note, which is difficult to believe.

Violation Type: 3. Title and Cover
If the title or cover of a note deliberately uses exaggerated and distorted expressions, attracts attention with controversial values, and promotes products, the note will lose its reference value and may even mislead others.

Controversial values
The note title or cover has value issues that excessively please the opposite sex, degrade female friendship, and create gimmicks to attract attention.

Obscure and ambiguous
The note uses titles such as “Do Not Buy,” “Regret Buying,” or “I Regret Buying,” which may mislead readers into thinking it’s a conscientious warning, but after clicking, they find out it’s a recommendation instead of a critique.

Violation Type: 4. Mild discomfort
Notes should use clear and aesthetically pleasing content as cover images. Displaying unpleasant content such as bloody scars or close-ups of skin blemishes in the first picture will not be recommended.

For example, the note shown beside is promoting an acne product, but the first image used in the note is a testing picture that includes redness and pimples, which may cause discomfort to readers.

Violation Type: 5. Excessive photo editing
Excessive use of airbrushing, filters, and beautifying effects in the notes may not truthfully demonstrate the product’s effectiveness. Using unreasonable comparisons and implications to suggest product effects can mislead users and make it difficult for them to perceive the product’s true effects.

Excessive beautification
The note material is excessively edited through post-production techniques such as excessive airbrushing and overlaying filters, exaggerating the product’s display effect far beyond reality.

Before and after comparison effect
The note shows the before-and-after effects of the product by opening filters. However, because of the large difference between the effect and the actual situation, it is easy to be distrusted.

Unreasonable comparison and implication
To highlight the product’s effect, the note implies the product’s efficacy through methods such as “before and after several years,” “before and after makeup,” and “comparison with others.” However, these methods do not show the true effect of the product and may have the intention to mislead or confuse the audience. This is commonly seen in cooperative product displays of whitening and anti-aging products. For example, the note’s incorrect statement “Before using XX, After using XX” can be changed to “This is the feeling after using it for a period of time.”
For instance, the picture on right exaggerates the product’s effect through a filter, making the arm and background gradually brighter.

Violation Type: 6. Stiff insertion
The note’s title or first picture attracts clicks in the name of sharing, science popularization, or recommendation but involves product recommendation or advertising, which is a violation of regulations. As the product recommendation is sudden and abrupt, it has little persuasive power compared to the previous content or title.

Violation Type: 7. Comparison in Collections
Some notes use malicious comparisons to other products to promote a collaboration product and engage in improper behavior such as belittling and disparaging. For example, in the above collaboration notes, products are compared and classified based on unreasonable or unsubstantiated ratings, which can mislead users.

Violation Type: 8. Qualification Deficiency
For some special-purpose products or services, brands need to provide relevant qualification certificates in the background before bloggers can publish collaboration notes normally.

Q: In which industries do you need relevant qualifications to collaborate?
Brands in special-purpose product and service industries need to provide relevant qualifications. Common categories are as follows, and the complete list is in Appendix 1:
Special cosmetics, such as products that claim to have special effects such as whitening, freckle removal, anti-hair loss, sun protection, hair dyeing, and perming.
Health food, such as products that claim to have the effects of removing yellow and brown spots, regulating intestinal flora, promoting digestion, relieving constipation, enhancing immunity, relieving visual fatigue, improving growth and development, and improving nutritional anemia.
Medical equipment and institutions, such as contact lenses, beauty lenses, ear thermometers, medical dressings, dental care, physical examination institutions, postpartum care centers, etc.

Q: What should bloggers do when they receive a notification that collaboration products in their notes need to provide qualification certificates?
1. Contact the brand to provide relevant qualification certificates for the product or service. Method: [Dandelion Backstage-Mine-Qualification Management-Product Category Qualification];

2. Delete content related to the product or service that requires qualification certificates in the notes.

Violation Type: 9. Underage Marketing
– It is strictly prohibited for child stars under the age of 10 to appear or use their image for product or service promotion.
– It is strictly prohibited for minors to introduce and promote products or services in the first person.
– It is strictly prohibited to use the image of minors (including minor emojis) in cooperation notes for inappropriate product categories for minors. Inappropriate categories include but are not limited to: medical equipment, drugs, alcoholic beverages, beauty services, non-children’s health foods, non-children’s cosmetics, and online games that are harmful to the physical and mental health of minors.

For example, the left image involves underage marketing, while the right image features minors appearing in inappropriate categories as emojis.
Note: Children’s health food (such as children’s calcium tablets), children’s cosmetics (such as baby cream), infant formula, etc., minors can only appear as models for display.

Violation Type: 10. Non-Compliance with Filing
Q: Can the brand name be corrected if it is reported incorrectly?
A: If the brand or agency has filled in the wrong name for the reported brand, they can contact customer service, and the relevant staff in the background will make the correction.

[Contact Information for Customer Service]
On the mobile app: From the Xiaohongshu homepage, click on “Me” > “PRO” in the upper right corner > the headphone icon in the upper right corner. In the chat box, type “human” to contact a customer service representative.
On the PC website: From the Pugongying homepage, click on the chat bubble on the right side to contact a customer service representative.

Next, we will share about on Xiaohongshu Content – Key Industry Policy. If you wish to know more about Xiaohongshu Marketing or China Marketing, please contact us with the form below!