A former flight attendant passenger was killed, and then a Yueqing girl was victimized. Two murders occurred in just three months. Didi’s internal management was questioned, and it was interviewed and ordered to rectify by multiple regulatory departments in many places. Now, the regulatory storm that belongs to Didi has arrived. On the 28th, Didi Chuxing founder Cheng Wei and president Liu Qing issued an apology statement saying that the ride-hailing business model was reassessed and it would be offline indefinitely before the safety protection measures were not recognized by users.
Online insults of murdered girls
A man is under administrative detention
On August 24, Zhao, a girl from Yueqing, Zhejiang Province, was raped and killed by her driver on her way to Yongjia in Didi Hitch. Three months ago, in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, a flight attendant passenger was killed by a Didi Hitch driver. The two cases are the same, the same Didi, the same Hitch, and the same female passenger died.
After the incident, Didi claimed that "for all criminal cases that occur on the platform in the future, Didi will give compensation three times according to the standard of personal injury compensation stipulated by law". However, any compensation and accountability after the incident cannot restore the lost lives.
On August 27, the People’s Procuratorate of Yueqing City, Zhejiang Province approved the arrest of the alleged offender Zhong Yuan on suspicion of robbery, rape, and intentional homicide. After accepting the case materials submitted by the Yueqing City Public Security Bureau for approval of the arrest of the alleged offender Zhong Yuan on August 27, the People’s Procuratorate of Yueqing City found that Zhong Yuan’s behavior was suspected of robbery, rape, and intentional homicide, and met the conditions for arrest. According to the provisions of the first and second paragraphs of Article 79 of the Criminal Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China, the decision to approve the arrest of Zhong Yuan was made according to law on August 27 and handed over to the public security organs for execution.
Previously, the Didi platform said in an apology and statement: "The license plate was forged offline by Zhong at the time of the crime." The alleged offender confessed that he had been running Didi Hitch with the license plate at the time of the crime since May and June last year. According to the police report, at the time of the crime, Zhong Yuan was driving a car with the license plate of Sichuan A31J0Z. When the police applied to the Didi platform for owner information during the case, they also got the license plate of Sichuan A.
The alleged offender, Zhong Yuan, also acknowledged that the Sichuan A31J0Z vehicle was the vehicle at the time of the crime. However, in an apology and statement issued by Didi’s platform, it mentioned that "the license plate at the time of the crime was forged offline by Zhong." In an interview with reporters, Didi did not explain.
Shenzhen police issued a police report on the evening of the 27th, saying that a man was detained by the police according to law for making some remarks in the QQ group that seriously insulted the girl who was killed by Yueqing Riding Didi Hitch.
According to reports, after the murder of the Yueqing girl on Didi Hitch, a QQ user nicknamed "Shenzhen-No Car" made insulting remarks about the murdered girl in the "Shenzhen Didi Exchange Group" QQ group of more than 1,000 people, which immediately aroused the indignation of netizens and has seriously caused adverse social impact. On August 27, the Shenzhen Internet police seized the suspect in an industrial park in Bao’an District based on a tip. After trial, Zhang Moujin (male, 22 years old) confessed to his illegal act of spreading insulting remarks online.
The public security organ reminded that online platforms are illegal, and citizens should take responsibility for their online speech. Words and deeds that insult others and disrupt social order on the Internet will be punished by law.
Hitch business offline indefinitely
According to the official Weibo news of Didi Chuxing platform, on the 28th, Didi Chuxing founder Cheng Wei and president Liu Qing issued an apology statement saying that Didi no longer uses scale and growth as a measure of the company’s development, and the business model of Hitch is reassessed. Before the safety protection measures are not recognized by users, it will be offline indefinitely.
The following is the full text of the apology statement:
Solemnly apologize
In the past few days, our hearts have once again fallen into incomparable pain and suffering. In just over three months, during the process of safety rectification of the platform, tragedy happened again. As the founder and president of the company, we are very sad and remorseful. Although all words are pale in the face of the lost lives, we still solemnly apologize to the victims, to the families of the victims, and to everyone. Sorry, we failed everyone.
When we set out six years ago, we firmly believed that we could use the power of technology to make travel better, but the tragedy we experienced made us realize that we lacked awe. Because of our ignorance and arrogance, we caused irreparable damage. We knew that in the end, it was our competitive spirit that overshadowed our original intention. In just a few short years, we relied on aggressive business strategies and the power of capital to run all the way to prove ourselves. But today, in the face of lost lives, all this false name has lost its meaning. Many colleagues began to waver, wondering if they were really doing the right thing, and the whole company began to deeply examine and even question whether our values were correct. Everyone was caught in the emotions of self-examination, self-doubt, and self-denial.
In this sad moment, the only thing we can do is to lead the team to face the pain, take responsibility, race against time and do our best to solve the problem, let the original intention return, and express our condolences in this way.
In the past few days, the team has repeatedly sorted out every detail of the case, and deeply reflected on the reasons and management issues behind it, and will implement actions in the following areas:
1. Didi no longer uses scale and growth as a measure of the company’s development, but takes safety as the core assessment indicator, and its organization and resources are fully tilted towards safety and customer service systems.
2. The overall function of the safety product is upgraded to optimize functions such as emergency help and itinerary sharing. For customer service complaints about personal safety, we will take a three-way connection to dial 110 to ensure that the relevant information is given to the police as soon as possible;
3. The Hitch business model is reassessed, and it will be offline indefinitely before the security protection measures are not recognized by users.
4. Work with the public security department to build a user security protection mechanism, respond efficiently to the needs of local public security departments in accordance with the law, and start testing the developed police self-service inquiry system.
Although safety work is never-ending, and although it is difficult for us to completely prevent people with ulterior motives from using the platform to do illegal things, we will do our best to protect passengers and drivers on the platform, so that the crime rate of the online ride-hailing industry continues to decrease, and cooperate with the police to bring all criminals to justice. I implore all sectors of society to supervise and criticize us, and always spur us on.
In the face of the loss of life, we have no excuses and once again offer a solemn apology to everyone.
Cheng Wei, Liu Qing
August 28, 2018
Order Didi to make a comprehensive rectification
data access supervision platform
On the afternoon of the 25th, after the Yueqing police arrested the alleged offender, the Zhejiang Provincial Transportation Management Bureau urgently interviewed the person in charge of the Zhejiang District of the Didi platform. In view of the major safety hazards of the Didi platform ride-hailing business, the Didi platform was required to rectify immediately, and its ride-hailing business in the Zhejiang area was suspended during the rectification period.
On the afternoon of the 26th, the Ministry of Transport, together with the Ministry of Public Security and the Beijing and Tianjin transportation and public security departments, conducted a joint interview with Didi Company in response to the above incident, ordering it to immediately carry out comprehensive rectification of the ride-hailing business, accelerate the compliance process, strictly abide by the safety bottom line, effectively implement the main responsibility of the carrier’s safe and stable management, protect the safety and legitimate rights and interests of passengers, and promptly announce the relevant rectification to the society.
On the 27th, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and other relevant departments in Guangdong Province all conducted interviews with Didi. Among them, the Guangzhou side stressed that the Guangzhou traffic department will strengthen the law enforcement linkage with the public security, market supervision and other departments, and take a "zero tolerance" attitude to resolutely investigate and punish all kinds of illegal acts such as illegal operation of online car-hailing and illegal operation in the name of Hitch.
Nearly 5,000 drivers in the city did not obtain relevant operating certificates, did not transmit data to government departments as required, and did not cooperate with the public security organs to check the driver’s background… Shenzhen multi-department ordered Didi platform to complete four comprehensive rectification work by the end of September, otherwise, it will take joint punishment, revoke the business license, and remove the APP from the shelves.
In addition, the Hubei Wuhan Municipal Traffic Commission and the Municipal Public Security Bureau jointly interviewed 9 online car-hailing platforms such as Didi Chuxing on the basis of the Wuhan Customer Management Office, and ordered the city’s online car-hailing companies to speed up the compliance process.
A few days ago, the Chongqing Municipal Transportation Management Bureau, the Municipal Traffic Administrative Law Enforcement Detachment, and the Municipal Public Security Bureau Public Security Corps Passenger Transport Detachment interviewed Didi Chongqing Branch and ordered it to obtain the legal business qualification for online car-hailing within a time limit in accordance with the requirements of the national and Chongqing road transportation laws and regulations. According to reports, since Didi entered the Chongqing market in 2014, it has not obtained the business qualification due to its failure to meet the relevant requirements of the national and Chongqing road transportation laws and regulations. In addition, according to the relevant requirements of the Ministry of Transport, the Chongqing Municipal Transportation Management Bureau has repeatedly asked Didi to connect its business data to the data platform of the management department for supervision, but Didi has not yet connected.
In addition, the Chongqing Municipal Traffic Law Enforcement Department has seized multiple cases of Didi drivers engaging in cross-regional illegal operations in the name of Hitch, and has interviewed Didi many times to order them to standardize and rectify, but with little success.
During the interview, the Chongqing transportation management department put forward a number of mandatory rectification requirements for Didi Chongqing Branch, requiring it to put the safety of people’s lives and property first, and obtain legal business qualifications within a time limit, including timely cleaning up of non-compliant vehicles and drivers on the platform, connecting vehicle and driver data within the scope of Didi Chongqing to the government supervision platform, establishing a passenger complaint platform and processing replies in a timely manner.
Comprehensive Xinhua News Agency, CCTV News, China News Service
