Author: Li Zhengwei, Li Mengzhu, Yao Kunsen, reporter from Guangming.com
"Guangming Daily" (page 07 on February 22, 2022)
"The Weibo station will investigate and control the content related to the Winter Olympics, clean up 41,473 illegal Weibo posts, and impose bans on 850 accounts for 30 days to permanent bans depending on the degree." , report acceptance, public opinion monitoring, etc., intercepted and cleaned up 6,780 related illegal videos and comments, and banned or even banned 331 accounts that had acts of mutual abuse, incitement to confrontation, or online violence and slander, depending on the severity of the violation. Wait for it to be dealt with”... During the Beijing Winter Olympics, some uncivilized behaviors on the Internet seriously affected the atmosphere of watching the games. Many platforms attacked, banned a number of extreme accounts, and severely cracked down on online violence and online rumors.
The hit drama "The Beginning" some time ago also made people reflect on cyber violence.
With the development of Internet technology in recent years, more and more ordinary people have a way to express themselves in public space, and many people have suddenly lost their due norms.
In the era of "everyone has a microphone", the seemingly "unimportant" words and deeds on the Internet are likely to turn the "voice" of netizens into a sharp knife.
What behaviors are considered cyberbullying?
Who are the biggest victims of cyberbullying?
How to avoid turning "cyber justice" into "cyber violence"?
All of the above are questions that need to be pondered.
What is cyber violence?
Clear definitions are necessary
"Don't make comments without knowing it. No snowflake is innocent in an avalanche." Talking about cyber violence, Lin Pin, a teacher at the School of Literature at Capital Normal University, recalled his personal experience two years ago.
At that time, because of his remarks against a certain star, he suffered a group of extreme fans for a period of time.
What is cyber violence?
"At present, there is no clear definition, and it is more generalized from a local perspective. For example, hate speech, false news, violent and terrorist speech, etc." He believes that in the Internet era, it is necessary to have a clear definition of cyber violence, but this definition must be a dynamic, continuously changing and expanding concept.
According to Liu Deliang, a professor at Beijing Normal University and director of the Asia-Pacific Cyber Law Research Center, cyber violence is not a legal term, and may be involved in different disciplines.
"This kind of behavior is often initiated by one person, has a large number of participants, high frequency of public interaction, and has the characteristics of cross-platform communication. Its harmful consequences are unpredictable and uncontrollable. dignity and other violations." Liu Deliang said.
Regarding the reasons for cyber violence, Liu Deliang believes that the Internet is virtual and anonymous, which makes users ignore the real social identity, moral standards and rules and regulations in the process of using the Internet, and guide them with the mentality of "not blaming the public for the law". In addition, at the legal level, the public information release platform does not require the public information release platform to undertake the obligation to review the user information release in advance, but can only dispose of the information through post-event relief, which encourages "Internet trolls", "Internet navy" and "keyboards". Hero" arrogance.
In many cases, behind the spread of cyber violence, there is malicious guidance from cyber criminals or behind-the-scenes promoters, which also leads to the complexity and urgency of governance.
"Taking the entertainment industry as an example, in many scenes, fans' expressions are very easy to get out of control, and cyber violence follows." Lin Pin, who has been concerned about fan culture for many years, also felt deeply.
He believes that some traffic teams have long implemented fan operations aimed at disciplining "fan-type users" into "data labor", and established a set of "fan abuse - solid fans" to "tear resources - fight for positions" to The business and capital factors behind the chain of "rushing krypton gold - cutting leeks" need to be vigilant and criticized.
A Perspective of Cyber Violence from a Legal Perspective
The online world is a world that is parallel and blended with the real world.
Therefore, cyberspace has never been a place outside the law. Anyone whose words and deeds on the Internet exceed the reasonable boundaries of freedom of speech will bear the corresponding consequences and pay the legal price.
Judging from the judicial judgments on cyber violence incidents in recent years, the two more influential cases are the case of "Deyang female doctor An Mou committed suicide after being subjected to cyber violence" and "Hangzhou woman was slandered when she picked up express delivery".
Among them, the Hangzhou woman was sentenced to one year in prison and two years of probation for the crime of defamation, respectively.
In the Deyang female doctor case, the court found that the actions of the three defendants constituted the crime of insult, and sentenced defendant Chang Mou to one year and six months imprisonment; Chang Mou two to one year imprisonment, suspended for two years; Sun Moumou to fixed-term imprisonment Six months, suspended for one year.
In real life, similar cases are numerous.
In this regard, Liu Deliang expressed his concerns: "Traditional laws and regulations adopt the method of ex post relief, which cannot fully adapt to the changes in the network field. In the Internet era, the cost of subsequent dissemination of information is low, and it is difficult to control subsequent dissemination, and ex post relief methods are no longer available. It is in line with the laws of information dissemination in the Internet age. Therefore, Internet legislation must be followed up in a timely manner, and law enforcement efforts must be stepped up to effectively stop the phenomenon of cyber violence and purify the Internet environment."
In-depth analysis of these cases shows that the spread of cyber violence is often accompanied by chaos such as human flesh searches, which also highlights the leakage of personal information and personal privacy.
"The leakage of personal information and data is an important part of the expansion of the influence of cyber violence incidents. Therefore, in the process of cyber violence governance, strengthening the level of personal information protection and data security is a very critical part." Wu Shenkuo said.
In the "Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China", which was officially implemented in November last year, it was clearly mentioned that the obligation to strengthen important Internet platforms should be strengthened, as well as to strengthen the punishment mechanism and intensity of infringing personal information.
In this regard, Liu Deliang believes that online infringement is characterized by anonymity, and the infringed cannot know the direct subject of the infringing act. Therefore, as the provider of the information release platform, the network service provider should disclose the implementation to the infringed within its capacity. Infringing network user information, so that the infringed can protect their legitimate rights and interests.
Which Internet users are more likely to become abusers and victims
Dong Chenyu, a lecturer at the School of Journalism at Renmin University of China, conducted a questionnaire survey on middle school students in some areas of Shanghai in 2019. Among them, nearly 90% of the students believed that they had suffered or witnessed cyber violence.
"What we are particularly concerned about is that under the question 'what would you do if you were subjected to verbal violence or physical threats online', the highest ranking was to choose self-digestion, and the lowest was to tell teachers or parents. It shows that parents and schools have not established enough trust with their children, and they have not made children aware that they can ask for help even if they encounter cyberbullying." Dong Chenyu said.
The latest report of the China Internet Network Information Center shows that the number of netizens in my country has reached 1.011 billion, and the scale of netizens aged 6 to 19 has reached 158 million, accounting for 15.7% of the total netizens.
With the further expansion of the age structure of accessing the Internet to the youth group, the adverse effects of the Internet on the youth group have also attracted widespread attention from all walks of life.
Dong Chenyu said that in the pre-Internet era, people paid more attention to the actual school violence. At this time, parents would consciously tell their children, "If someone bullies you, tell the parents or teachers"; but in the Internet era, students may not take the initiative Say, "Teacher, someone scolded me online".
"That is to say, we have not intervened effectively enough in this transition, which itself is also an important problem in media literacy." Dong Chenyu believes that from the perspective of the "Internet de-inhibition effect", the Internet will inhibit some In the broad sense of "social norms", online interactions often fail to receive timely feedback. When cyber violence occurs, the perpetrator cannot see the victim, and the perpetrator will inflict harm even more recklessly, turning many issues that could be discussed into a fight. The "online scolding war" has resulted in rational, moderate, and constructive speech being squeezed or blocked, becoming the "silent majority".
"The netizens who participate in cyber violence are mostly younger and less educated users. They are very confident in their own opinions, but in fact have very limited knowledge." Lin Pin said that they need to attack others to satisfy "their own needs." is right" imagine.
In addition, many fans in the entertainment circle will fall into the information cocoon room built for them by the fan operators, "professional fans" and "fantou" of the traffic star team, and frequently receive various low-quality, non-standard information in the "cocoon room". Rational information leads to continuous stimulation of the mind and emotions, and it is easy to fall into the binary opposition thinking of either friend or enemy, or fan or black. It divides the rich and diverse voices in the cyberspace either one or the other.
In addition, from the perspective of personality traits, Dong Chenyu believes that perpetrators often have aggressive personalities and are extremely lacking in empathy.
That is, the more aggressive a person is, the easier it is to interpret ambiguous information as hostile.
Network civilization requires multiple efforts and long-term efforts
"The governance of cyber violence needs to pay attention to many factors: not only through guiding education to improve citizens' media literacy and civilized quality, but also through improving government supervision and social supervision mechanisms to promote Internet platforms to effectively fulfill their main responsibilities." Lin Pin said .
"It is necessary to take a combination of prevention in advance and relief after the fact to curb cyber violence." Liu Deliang suggested that the dissemination of online information cannot be separated from the online platform. We must first start with regulating the platform, and clarify the platform's prior review responsibility in the law. Big data and other technical means can identify pictures, text, voice, etc., and filter obvious illegal and infringing information. For other relatively concealed infringing information, the victim can notify the platform to delete, block, disconnect the link, etc.; Strictly implement the network real-name system , restricting citizens’ reckless speech on the Internet, so that they can be held accountable in a timely manner after the occurrence of cyber violence; increase the legal responsibility of infringers or platforms that fail to perform the main responsibility, reduce the cost of rights defenders, and increase the cost of infringers. Relief for people is also a shock and deterrent to infringers.
In terms of improving the supervision mechanism, Wu Shenkuo believes that it is necessary to establish an effective complaint and reporting mechanism in a timely manner to ensure that complaints and reports from the public can be handled quickly, effectively and conveniently. .
In order to create a civilized, healthy, festive and peaceful atmosphere for online public opinion during the Spring Festival, on the eve of the Spring Festival this year, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China launched a one-month special campaign of "Clean and Bright 2022 Spring Festival Network Environment Remediation", including focusing on rectifying issues such as online violence and spreading rumors. .
Since the launch of the special action, local network information departments and Internet platforms have responded positively and focused on the special rectification of cyber violence.
The network society is a virtual space formed by the real society through the role of the Internet. To strengthen the construction of a civilized society should also strengthen the construction of network civilization and network ethics.
"Many online problems are the mapping of offline problems on the Internet, and show special forms and propagation laws in cyberspace. Therefore, only when the entire social governance system and governance capabilities are improved, can cyber violence be fundamentally managed." Wu Shenkuo said.
Wang Sixin, deputy dean of the Institute of Community with a Shared Future for Humanity, Communication University of China, also said that the governance of cyber violence requires comprehensive and systematic corrections in terms of cyberspace speech and information ecology, and requires continuous efforts and long-term efforts.
(Reporter Li Zhengwei, Li Mengzhu and Yao Kunsen from Guangming.com)