An Internet celebrity with 3 million fans on the whole network once thought of suicide when he encountered cyberbullying.
This Internet celebrity is a graduate student of Nanjing University, and his screen name is "Qiqiqi has this reason". The cyberbullying she encountered started with a picture of being ugly by netizens in January last year. Qiqi told reporters that someone posted on the Internet "Scolding me for being a P figure monster, and the follow-up posts and follow-ups add up to thousands of floors, rushing to the hot list of some platforms." Later, there were rumors that I cheated on financial aid, threatened my classmates with cyberbullying, had improper relationships between men and women, and those who supported me were also scolded. I really felt desperate and unfair. I didn't do anything wrong, I didn't feel sorry for anyone, so why would you slander me like that? I thought, self-harm or suicide, will all this abuse stop?"
▲ Kiki's photo
Cyberbullying: An unpreventable cyber "cancer"
Kiki believes that cyberbullying is the bullying of a person by many people online. Her personal feelings are in line with the concept given by the Cyberspace Administration of China. "Online violence information" refers to illegal and negative information such as insults, abuse, rumors and slander, invasion of privacy, as well as moral kidnapping, belittling, discrimination, and malicious speculation that are published on individuals through the Internet.
Why did Qiqi lie down inexplicably? Her lawyer, Wang Chun, believes that there are three reasons. First, jealousy is a haunt. The second is for traffic. Because Qiqi is an online blogger with a certain number of fans, some netizens bring traffic to themselves through abuse and rumors. The third is to follow the trend. Many netizens were misled by some out-of-context content on the Internet.
The huge traffic coerced by cyberbullying is brought by netizens who do not know the truth or lack independent judgment. For example, the netizens who initially slandered Qiqi in the ugly picture of P, after other netizens pointed out that "the original picture was posted on the school's official account, and this one was ugly by P", argued that he posted the original picture, and the picture released by the school's official account was Qiqi's one-handed cover of the sky, and later changed. People with a little common sense of the operation of the official account know that at that time, the pictures of the tweets that have been released cannot be replaced, but there are still many netizens who do not know what to do and believe this statement. At this time, emotions dominate everything, facts are no longer the criterion for judging, and the anonymity of the Internet and the thinking that the law does not blame the public also make them have no scruples.
Luo Xiang, a professor of law at the Internet celebrity, said: "If extreme opinions are concentrated on a certain individual, it can easily evolve into an online execution of him or her." ”
Kiki's experience is not an isolated case, but a microcosm of the phenomenon of cyberbullying that has occurred repeatedly in recent years. In a large number of cases, online violence has caused some parties to "social death", and even mental disorders and suicides, seriously disrupting the online order, destroying the online ecology, and causing a bad social impact.
Kiki's choice: The road to rights protection is long and long, and she will never retreat
In the face of cyberviolence, Qiqi chose to actively defend her rights.
"I may be walking very slowly, but I will never go back!" she said.
Since the infringement occurred in January last year, she has collected relevant evidence and filed a lawsuit against two Zhihu users, an online blogger, and an official account operator who infringed on her portrait and reputation rights. Of the four lawsuits, two have been successfully defended, one is awaiting a verdict, and the other is awaiting trial.
On July 27 last year, after mediation presided over by the court, Qiqi obtained an apology from a cyberbully, and the apology statement posted by the other party on Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Zhihu, and Bilibili accounts was retained for 20 days. Kiki announced the initial success of her rights protection in her account.
▲Screenshot of the successful video of Qiqi's rights protection released on August 10, 2023
In fact, Kiki's road to defending her rights is not smooth.
In the face of cyberviolence, tens of thousands of yuan in litigation fees are undoubtedly a high threshold for ordinary people, and the biggest difficulty lies in psychological pressure. Kiki said that during that time, she was so devastated that she didn't have the courage to click on those links, and all the evidence was collected by lawyers.
Spreading rumors with one mouth, breaking legs for rights protection, and it took a lot of effort just to find the defendant. In some platforms, as long as a mobile phone number can be registered, the platform will not cooperate with the lawyer's letter alone for the sake of protecting the user's privacy. Only by taking the platform to court, and then the court issues an investigation order, and then finds the information of the owner of the mobile phone number through the operator. In Qiqi's case, the two netizens who took the lead in spreading rumors were not from Jiangsu, and the lawyer went to the operators of the two provinces to obtain the true information of the defendant.
In addition, at the legislative level, the mainland does not yet have a well-developed legal framework specifically for online violence, so Qiqi can only initiate lawsuits against infringement of portrait rights and reputation rights in accordance with existing laws such as the Civil Code.
After successfully defending her rights in the previous two cases, Kiki found that more and more people were supporting her. She believes that the key for ordinary people to deal with online violence is whether they are strong in their hearts, and of course, there is a premise for this, which is the strong support of the law.
Take multiple measures at the same time to show the sword against cyberviolence
Victims' active protection of their rights in accordance with the law is an important way to combat and stop cyberviolence, and the state severely cracks down on cyberviolence in accordance with the law, and uses comprehensive management methods to maintain a clean cyberspace, which has the role and significance of "curing the root cause".
During the two sessions of the National People's Congress this year, more than one NPC deputy suggested the enactment of the "Anti-Cyber Violence Law", suggesting that the practice of handling criminal cases such as telecommunications network fraud should be referred to, and that criminal acts engaged in cyber violence be punished more severely within the statutory sentencing range, so as to form a more powerful deterrent.
In response to the difficulty in protecting the rights of victims of online violence, on September 25 last year, the "Two Supreme People's Courts and One People's Court" jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Punishing Violations and Crimes of Online Violence in Accordance with Law" to further implement the legal provisions on public security organs assisting in the collection of evidence. The opinion draws on the experience and practice of transferring the private prosecution to public prosecution in the case of Hangzhou woman picking up express delivery, and clearly stipulates: "Where the victim initiates a private prosecution for online insult or defamation, and the people's court finds that the relevant conduct seriously endangers social order after review, the case shall be transferred to the public security organs." ”
The online platform is the "gatekeeper" of information security, how should the platform establish a protection mechanism? Qiqi believes that the one-click protection mode can filter out some bad comments and prevent themselves from seeing these contents, although there is a certain degree of protection, but the cyberviolence information still exists, and the infringer cannot be punished, so there is no way to prevent the generation of rumors. Many platforms have set up a one-click reporting function, some platforms respond quickly, and after users report, the information is quickly hidden, while some platforms are slow and half-beat, and the post may still be there a few days after the report. She hopes that some platforms will be more efficient in handling reports.
Lawyer Wang Chun hopes that the platform will improve the protection mechanism for victims and increase the degree of real-name recognition of online users. "If there is a mechanism for the platform to directly provide the true information of the cyberbully when the lawyer investigates and collects evidence, it does not necessarily require the court to issue an investigation order, which will be more convenient for the victim to protect his rights and better protect his or her legitimate rights and interests. Wang Chun said, "The online real-name system is very necessary. We can't correct other people's thoughts, but after realization, netizens will consider before posting, and if they will be sued and liable for compensation if they publish infringing remarks, they will consider the cost of doing this. In addition, increasing the punishment for online violence can effectively deter infringers. ”
The "Notice on Effectively Strengthening the Governance of Online Violence" issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China on November 2, 2022 stipulates that website platforms should immediately address information that is clearly cyberviolence. Provide users with functions such as one-click evidence collection for cyberviolence information, so as to facilitate the parties to quickly collect evidence. Key website platforms should publicly collect and display comments published in users' public spaces on the homepage of their own accounts, strengthening public oversight.
He Jing, associate professor and dean of the Department of Law at Nanjing University of Technology's School of Law and Politics, believes that legislation cannot be exhaustive, and it needs to rely on the power of science and technology, for example, to strengthen cooperation with large web portals and technology companies. In addition to judicial and administrative management, it is also important to carry out comprehensive governance, with the media guiding and deterring through cautionary cases, and netizens raising their awareness of the rule of law. He Jing suggested the establishment of a coordination mechanism dedicated to tackling online violence, and if the situation is serious, multiple departments can be coordinated to play an early warning role, so that the public security organs can intervene in a timely manner.
The 2023 work report released by the Supreme People's Court this year pointed out that in order for public power to support victims, cyberviolence must pay a price. This is a contest between justice and evil, and those who "kill people with keys and hurt people with keys" will inevitably escape justice!
Written by Lin Xi and Tian Zhixiong, who also contributed to this article
Editor: Zhang Liwei
Editor-in-Chief: Wang Qinhua