On May 2022, 5, Zhang Yi (pseudonym) collapsed.
She found that photos of herself and two other girls had been yellow and posted on a forum on a pornographic website with captions that they "often seduce men."
Zhang Yi immediately reported to the Hongjialou Police Station in Licheng District, Jinan, and the police intervened.
On March 3 this year, she waited for the results of the police's handling, and Zhao Moufeng was administratively detained for 9 days for spreading pornographic materials, which is scheduled to be carried out this summer.
On March 3, Soochow University, where Zhao Moufeng is located, also released the investigation and handling of the "student's malicious P-attempt to insult women" incident, saying that the public security organ had made an administrative punishment decision and expelled the student from school in accordance with the relevant regulations of the university, and would be handled in accordance with the procedures.
This is the 311th day after Zhang Yi found out that he had been fabricated with yellow rumors. In the meantime, Zhang Yi spent more than half a year looking for the mastermind behind the scenes. But so far, she hasn't waited for any apology from Zhao.
"A little psychopathic" high school classmate and an injury that can't be crossed
On January 1 this year, Zhang Yi found Zhao Moufeng, who created her yellow rumors. When confronting, Zhao Moufeng became angry and begged Zhang Yi not to make this matter public on the Internet, "To put it bluntly, I am a little psychopathic!" ”
In the months after May 2022, Zhao Moufeng published more than 5 posts, creating yellow rumors of many girls, and the victims were not only Zhang Yi, but also Zhao Moufeng's high school sister, other friends and college classmates.
In the post, he used unsavory words to spread rumors and attacks, and even leaked the personal privacy of these girls.
"The day I saw the post, my whole brain went blank," Zhang Yi said, adding that she had fallen into collapse countless times over the months, "I must find this person, not only for myself, but also for other victims."
Zhang Yi found some of the victims, who determined that the photos were from their circle of friends. So they screened their mutual friends and found 20 suspects.
In the following period, Zhang Yi marked the photos in an imperceptible way, and then divided these suspects into 3 groups and posted them in a targeted manner. Soon, some kind of specially tagged photo appeared in the post of the site. Zhang Yi continued to use the same method, narrowing down the scope of suspicion.
For some unknown reason, in June 2022, the posting was suspended, which gave Zhang Yi the illusion that "things have been resolved". However, Zhang Yi knew that if he couldn't find the person who posted it, the matter could never end.
"Whenever I want to share my life and post photos in the circle of friends, whenever I see the news of women being sexually harassed and rumored, the content of these posts will appear in my mind." In an essay she wrote afterwards, she said that if the person who made the yellow rumors could not be found, "I will never be able to cross these injuries, and my life will not return to normal." ”
"He had no incentive to do such a dirty thing"
In November 2022, after more than half a year of investigation, with the joint efforts of the victims, Zhang Yi determined that the poster was her high school classmate Zhao Moufeng. This was unexpected for Zhang Yi, after all, "in my opinion, he has no motivation to do such a dirty thing."
"In my eyes, he has integrity and excellence, has always been the class president, and has also participated in the provincial most beautiful middle school student... He has many friends and a girlfriend of 4 years. Zhang Yi said.
Because Zhao Moufeng was entering graduate school at that time, Zhang Yi was also busy with schoolwork. It was not until January 1 this year that Zhang Yi met Zhao Moufeng.
During the 15-minute conversation, she did not get a word of apology, and Zhao Moufeng cared about whether this matter would be made public, "I don't want to explain anything about this matter, that is... Please, it's really not necessary. ”
Zhang Yi said that he had separately reported to the police in Jiangxi Taihe, where his hometown was located, and the police in Jinan, Shandong, where the school was located, and that someone needed justice for the girls who had fabricated yellow rumors.
On March 3, the 17th day after Zhang Yi found out that she had been fabricated with yellow rumors, she posted a long article on social platforms about the process of tracking down the rumor-mongers, and said that for two months, these victims still did not wait for any apology and explanation from Zhao.
"The legal liability for online rumor-mongering is divided into three types: civil liability, administrative liability and criminal liability." Zhang Jing, a lawyer at Beijing Lianggao Law Firm, pointed out that Zhao Moufeng first violated the girls' personality rights such as portrait rights and reputation rights, and should bear the responsibility of "stopping the infringement, restoring reputation, eliminating the impact, apologizing, and compensating for losses"; The public security organ's punishment of public security detention on Zhao Moufeng was precisely considering the seriousness of the circumstances and gave him an administrative responsibility determination that exceeded his civil liability.
According to Article 246 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, anyone who openly insults others or fabricates facts to slander others by violence or other methods shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, surveillance, or deprivation of political rights if the circumstances are serious.
"Every post sent by Zhao has tens of thousands of views and hundreds of comments," said Zhang Yuxia, a senior partner at Shanghai Shenhao Law Firm, who said that such views "indeed constitute a criminal offense" according to the Interpretations of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases Involving the Use of Information Networks to Commit Defamation.
"Although the crimes of insult and defamation are cases that are handled only after telling, it does not mean that the victimized girls can only be dealt with through private prosecution," Zhang Yuxia said, adding that if you want to protect your rights through criminal means, you can still report the case and ask the public security to deal with it according to law; After reporting a case, where criminal responsibility should be pursued in accordance with law, but the public security organs do not pursue the defendant's criminal responsibility, they may conduct another private prosecution.
But at the same time, Zhang Jing pointed out that "private criminal prosecution is very difficult", first of all, to prove that the behavior has reached a certain harm, and at the same time need to prove that this behavior has brought various adverse social impacts, "It took the parties six months to collect this evidence." ”
Zhang Yi said that based on comprehensive considerations, he decided not to initiate a private criminal prosecution.
How many more people are being injured by rumor-mongers
At this year's National People's Congress, "resolutely punishing online violence 'key injuries'" was written into the Supreme People's Procuratorate's work report. The report pointed out that in the past five years, 1,4 people have been prosecuted for online insults, defamation, and infringement of citizens' personal information.
"Rectifying online rumors is not only the focus of online ecological governance, but also the need to safeguard the rights and interests of netizens." During this year's National People's Political Consultative Conference, Peng Jing, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of Chongqing Jingsheng Law Firm, also made suggestions on the construction of an online rumor management system.
She believes that there are still legislative gaps in the current governance of online rumors, such as the lack of clear definitions of "serious consequences" and "major losses" in the Criminal Law, and the lack of clear provisions on "online false information and rumors", making it difficult to achieve precise crackdowns; In addition, there is still a lack of a unified Internet Basic Law or laws specifically targeting online rumors, resulting in the current situation of low rumor-mongering costs and high costs of debunking rumors. She believes that when conditions are ripe, a special Regulations on the Prevention and Punishment of Online Dissemination of False Information can be issued to enhance the authority and strength of cracking down on online rumors.
This year's Supreme People's Procuratorate's work report mentioned the "case of a woman who took a courier from being cheated on by rumors", which is a bad case caused by fabricating pornographic rumors, and the procuratorate suggested that the public security organ file a case for defamation, promote the transfer of private prosecution to public prosecution, and establish the principle of public prosecution for the protection of online personality rights.
On March 3, the day after Zhang Yi posted, a netizen posted that a boy at Qingqing University secretly photographed a girl in the same classroom and had an insulting and pornographic discussion with other boys in the campus group. The girl who was secretly photographed felt strongly uneasy after learning about the incident, and wrote a letter of appeal, hoping to report and criticize all students involved in verbal insults according to the school's disciplinary measures, and record an apology video of no less than 18 seconds.
According to reports, the relevant staff of Chongqing University said that the university has noticed the matter and is investigating.
"In the face of online rumors, women victims must have the courage to defend their rights." Zhang Yuxia reminded victims that when they discover infringements such as insults and slander, they must first fix evidence, save web pages, videos, notarized web pages, etc., and then report the case to the public security organs, asking the police to investigate and pursue administrative and criminal responsibility. If you do not want to protect your rights through criminal means, you can contact the online platform immediately after fixing the evidence, request the deletion of the infringing information, provide the identity information of the infringer, and after obtaining the infringer's information, you can file a lawsuit with the court to demand the cessation of the infringing act, an apology, economic compensation, etc.
Zhang Jing believes that behind the insults, slander, and rumors against women's groups, there is a deep-seated problem of sexism, "This seems to be an infringement of individual rights on the surface, but in fact, the essence behind it is a kind of gender discrimination." She also pointed out that if the deep-seated issues involved are not seriously addressed, it will lead to women in a state of "extreme insecurity" in the Internet age, which is not conducive to building a social atmosphere in which the two sexes live in harmony.
In a March 3 article, Mr. Zhang said that during that time, Mr. Zhao's friends "tried to show me through the people around me how much pressure and excusability he was doing this." Zhang Yi said, "The more difficult the situation, the less I will give in." ”
But only a day later, the article detailing the events could no longer be viewed. Zhang Yi said that "for various reasons," she had no choice but to delete the article.
China Youth Daily / China Youth Network trainee reporter Liu Yinheng Reporter Han Wei Source: China Youth Daily