Our reporter Wu Shuaishuai
Strangers who have never met before "spit out fragrance" and "greet family members";
Being questioned, being "human flesh", being exposed to life shortcomings and moral flaws;
Become the protagonist of lace news in an instant, and become a conversational resource for consumption...
These plots occur almost every day in the Internet field and constitute the tip of the iceberg of current online violence.
In July 2020, Ms. Citizengu, Hangzhou, was hit by a malicious "joke". She was deeply hurt by cyber violence and decided to take up legal weapons and fight against the rumors to the end.
After filing a criminal private prosecution, Ms. Gu displayed the notice.
Photo courtesy of respondents
After more than half a year of fermentation, from administrative punishment to criminal private prosecution to the current formal criminal case, the public authority seriously intervened in this online rumor.
In addition to paying attention to the progress of the case itself, many people are also thinking about whether public prosecution can really become a sword of online violence.
Some platforms deliberately indulge hype
One day in July 2020, when Ms. Gu went to the district express delivery point to pick up the express delivery, she was secretly filmed by Lang Mou, the owner of a nearby convenience store.
Lang then "joked" with his friend He, fabricating chat content such as "girl cheating courier" and sending it to the WeChat group.
Subsequently, the rumors were forwarded, processed, and continuously fermented on the Internet.
In August, Ms. Gu learned of the situation after being informed by a friend, and then called the police.
Subsequently, the Yuhang District Bureau of the Hangzhou Public Security Bureau issued a police report, claiming that Lang and He fabricated chat content and sent screenshots to the WeChat group, causing adverse social impact.
According to corresponding laws and regulations, the police imposed administrative detention penalties on the two persons.
But Ms. Gu believes that this incident caused serious physical and psychological trauma to her.
I was dismissed by the company, diagnosed as "depressed", and my boyfriend lost his job... Ms. Gu said that under a series of shocks, she felt that "I have lived for 28 years with seriousness and hard work. In the end it became a joke."
In this regard, on the other side of the incident, the father of Mr. Lang, the rumor maker, said in an interview that this was just a joke, which was posted in a small group. He did not expect the situation to develop to this point.
They underestimated the power of this joke.
Su Qianqian, a lecturer at Zhejiang Media College, said that in the online field, people lack accurate cognitive assessments of the consequences of inappropriate speech due to the physical and psychological distance between them.
At the same time, more people will participate in the topic fermentation process, resulting in superimposed harm to the victims.
The Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter's investigation found that from a deductive story to a repost by the media, such as "A young woman seduces a courier brother because of her loneliness?"
"Who's wife, your head is green enough to shine!"
"...The topic eventually became the carnival of the title party and the speculators.
In recent years, public opinion and even social problems caused by online violence are not uncommon, such as Zhang Haidi's smear incident, Jiang Yan incident, and "Qiao Renliang committed suicide due to depression due to online violence".
The actor Yuan Shanshan also raised a question in a speech, “Who is scolded by strangers who have never met every day 365 days a year?” The proliferation of online violence is evident.
Some platforms deliberately indulge such topical hype.
According to industry insiders, some platforms have not fulfilled the obligation of "notice to delete" in response to some scolding and defamation.
The gossip of celebrities, female college students, flight attendants and other specific label groups, because of high attention, platforms often acquiesce, condone, and even become accomplices in expanding harm.
According to Wang Sixin, Dean of the Law School of Communication University of China, there are many variables and definitions of cyber violence.
But from a formal point of view, it specifically includes online ethics trials, illegal human flesh searches, online collective abuse, slander, and bullying, as well as online and offline attacks using online means.
The form is not limited to language, but also includes audio and video.
Experts believe that the harm caused by defamation, slander, and defamation may be magnified in the Internet field, leading to many online violent behaviors, which are more harmful than language attacks in real life.
The target of online defamation turned to ordinary people
In 2012, the movie "Search" was released, telling the story of urban white-collar workers who were forced to a dead end in life because of the trivial matter of not giving up their seats on the bus, which caused the butterfly effect of cyber violence.
Although it is difficult to have comprehensive statistics, as the popularity of the Internet continues to increase, the chronic disease of online violence has plagued many people involved.
Liu Sisi, associate professor of Beijing International Studies University, pointed out in the book "Online Language Violence Issues" that there are currently three major trends in online violence, including the targeting of civilians, the promotion of human flesh searches, and the proliferation of online language abuse.
Looking for an exit from a blind spot, Ms. Gu chose to take up legal weapons.
On October 26, 2020, Ms. Gu filed a private criminal prosecution with the People's Court of Yuhang District, Hangzhou City.
The People's Court of Yuhang District decided to file the case on December 14.
The December incident has made new progress. According to the official release of the Zhejiang Provincial People’s Procuratorate, the local public security organs have filed criminal investigations against the two parties involved in defamation by issuing procuratorial recommendations.
In this regard, Meng Xun, a lawyer from Beijing Deheheng (Hangzhou) Law Firm, explained that the crime of defamation is indeed a private prosecution, but there are exceptions, that is, the stipulation stated in the official release, "The crime of defamation will only be dealt with, but it seriously harms the society. Except for order and national interest.” That is to say, when defamation causes “serious harm to social order or national interest”, it can be handled as a public prosecution case.
The procuratorial organ’s official release also confirmed this reason: “Related video materials were further disseminated and fermented on the Internet, and the situation of the case has changed. The actions of Lang and He not only damage the personality rights of the victims, but also use the Internet society as a specific social field. Dissemination rapidly and regionally, seriously disturbing the public order of the Internet society, causing insecurity to the general public, and serious harm to social order. According to the provisions of Article 246, Paragraph 2 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, it shall be subject to public prosecution procedures. Prosecute."
Wang Sixin said that it is rare for this case to be transferred from private prosecution to public prosecution in my country's judicial practice, and it is also rare for victims to take up legal weapons to defend their legitimate rights and interests.
In fact, it is rare to see the status quo of the difficulty in safeguarding rights.
Xue Jun, a professor at Peking University Law School, analyzed that the difficulty of determining the subject of infringement, the difficulty of fixing evidence, and the difficulty of obtaining support for compensation, are all obstacles to the protection of civil rights.
"For example, it is difficult to determine the subject of the infringement, sometimes it is difficult to identify the infringer, and platform assistance is needed; and the relevant factual evidence is not easy to fix, and the text and video on the Internet may be deleted." Xue Jun said.
Lv Boxiong, a lawyer at Zhejiang Jinglin Law Firm, believes that even if Ms. Gu filed a private criminal prosecution in this case, she would actually face great difficulty in producing evidence.
"The victim, as the plaintiff of the criminal private prosecution, has to bear the burden of proof. It is usually difficult for the victim to collect evidence on his own. Once the victim is unable to provide evidence, he will face the embarrassment of being persuaded to withdraw the lawsuit or being ruled to dismiss. Therefore, this case is handled through the public prosecution procedure, objectively punishing Cyber violence has played a positive role in maintaining social order."
The meaning of the sword of public power
Some netizens said that "the world suffers from online violence for a long time", this sentence just reflects the significance of public power intervention in this case.
Wang Sixin said that the transition from private prosecution to public prosecution can better demonstrate the warning effect behind the case, so that those who do not respect others and habitually insult and slander others through the Internet have a heart of awe.
In fact, from the perspective of technical means, cyber violence has a tendency to change its appearance.
For example, the application of AI face-changing technology may make rumors and slander more "realistic", and the damage caused to the victim may be more irreversible, and rights protection will also cost more.
Meng Xun said that including online defamation and insults that seriously endanger the society into the scope of public prosecution cases has broadened the path for online violence to protect rights.
This is not only a powerful deterrent to cyber perpetrators, but also reflects the escalation of the protection of personality rights after the implementation of the Civil Code.
"It is not only aimed at individual cases, but also has invisible constraints on various forms of cyber violence in the future."
At the same time, he suggested to change the single post-remedy method, further strengthen administrative law enforcement and platform pre-review, and filter out obvious illegal and infringing information.
For other infringing information, after being notified by the victim, the platform can take corresponding measures, such as deleting, blocking, and disconnecting the link.
At the same time, civil legal means should be used reasonably to strengthen the protection of the rights of victims, so that civil liability for compensation can be implemented.
In addition, in terms of technical means, Internet courts in Hangzhou and other places are exploring and using judicial blockchain evidence storage platforms to enable victims to save evidence in a low-cost, high credibility manner, and remove obstacles to follow-up rights protection.
Su Qianqian said that legal means can show immediate effects, but in the future, we still need to start with the quality of citizens, such as popularizing media literacy, paying attention to life education, and improving everyone's ability to empathize.