Insta360's legal affairs department announced via Weibo on the morning of September 17 the latest developments in its campaign against organized negative review attacks. Three members of a black-water army group have been placed under criminal detention by public security authorities for fabricating false negative reviews of Insta360 products, while the mastermind behind the scheme, a senior executive from a rival company in the same industry, has been subjected to administrative detention.
According to Insta360, in 2025 the company received tip-offs indicating that an organized group was systematically posting malicious negative reviews of its products on the Amazon platform. These reviews shared identical traits, including being posted in rapid succession over a short time frame, with the vast majority of accounts using Chinese pinyin IDs. The pattern also involved a one-stop process of receiving goods, posting negative reviews, and returning items, with many returned packages having unopened packaging. Insta360 subsequently filed a report with the police.
Following an investigation, police dismantled the black-gray industry group, and three criminal suspects were placed under criminal detention. Further investigation led authorities to trace the case back to its mastermind, who turned out to be a senior executive at a company in the same industry as Insta360. This executive hired the black-gray group to recruit international students to post fake negative reviews on Amazon at a rate of 200 to 300 yuan per review. The group even went as far as falsely claiming that one of Insta360's products, which only supports plug-in power, had battery life issues, deliberately aiming to damage Insta360's reputation in overseas markets.
The executive in question admitted to the illegal activities and has been administratively detained. Insta360 also noted that it has distributed four rounds of rewards to individuals who provided valuable clues, with multiple whistleblowers receiving awards of 10,000 yuan each. On September 16, Mr. Mo, a black-water army whistleblower and MCN industry practitioner, received a 10,000 yuan reward at Insta360's headquarters.