In recent years, with the rise of self-media, online news and information have been spread rapidly, and some people, in order to win eyeballs and earn traffic, disregard the facts, make inappropriate remarks at will, and spread them through Internet channels, seriously affecting the normal public order of society and bringing adverse effects to the lives of others. As everyone knows, the act of maliciously slandering and spreading rumors has touched the red line of the law.
Everyone abhors rumor-mongering and rumor-mongering, which creates and disseminates false information, disrupts social order, and damages the reputation of others through online platforms, but what is the truth behind rumors? According to relevant laws and regulations, what kind of punishment will rumor-mongers receive? How can we stay away from rumors and avoid becoming accomplices of rumor-mongers? Now, let's take a look at three cases.
Case 1:
The case of the woman who picked up the courier was derailed by rumors
On July 7, 2020, Ms. Gu was secretly photographed by Lang, the owner of a nearby convenience store, when she picked up a courier at an express station in a residential community in Yuhang District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, as usual. Subsequently, Lang and his friend He fabricated content such as "Woman Cheating Express Brother" and posted it to the WeChat group, which continued to ferment on the Internet.
On October 26, 2020, Ms. Gu filed a criminal private prosecution with the Yuhang District Court; on December 22, 2020, under the guidance of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the higher-level procuratorate, the Yuhang District Procuratorate issued a procuratorial proposal to the Yuhang District Branch of the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, recommending that the public security organs file a case for investigation; on February 26, 2021, the Yuhang District Procuratorate filed a public prosecution with the court on suspicion of defamation by Lang and He; on April 30, 2021, as the gavel fell, Ms. Gu finally waited for a result: Lang, He was sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year suspended sentence for defamation.
(April 30, 2021, trial scene)
July 7, 2020 to April 30, 2021. For nearly 300 days and nights, the voices of malicious speculation on the Internet pierced Ms. Gu's heart like an invisible blade, and for nearly 300 days and nights, this "small case" also received the attention of countless people online and offline. To sum up, there are two special features of this "small case": one is that it involves the protection of personality rights, which is a higher demand for the rule of law in the new era of the people, and the other is that it involves the network environment, and it is more difficult to obtain evidence of Internet infringements.
According to paragraph 2 of Article 246 of the Criminal Law, the crime of defamation shall be dealt with only if the complaint is filed, except for those that seriously endanger social order and national interests. After the general public is defamed, they face many difficulties in initiating private prosecutions, and the cases initiated by the procuratorate are even rarer in judicial practice. This case not only became the first defamation case in the country to be converted from private prosecution to public prosecution, but also was selected as one of the top ten legal supervision cases in 2020, written into the work report of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and became a guiding case of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, which has made a strong mark on the judicial protection of citizens' personality rights.
Case 2:
"I found the lost homework book of elementary school student Qin Lang in Paris"!
The video is really made up
On February 16, 2024, Internet celebrity blogger @Thurman Mao Mou posted a video saying that when she was in Paris, someone handed her two winter vacation homework books that she picked up in the toilet, asked her to help "return them to the owner", and shouted "Qin Lang, Class 8 of the first grade" in the air. Topics such as "Qin Lang Paris lost his winter vacation homework" quickly appeared on the hot searches on various platforms and continued to ferment.
On February 19, video blogger @Thurman Mao Mou released a video again, saying that Qin Lang's mother had been contacted and the incident had been "successfully concluded".
On the evening of February 19, the blogger in question released a video on this matter again, announcing the "Winter Vacation Homework Finale". In the WeChat chat with "Qin Lang's mother", the other party said: "I didn't expect this matter to affect so much, we just returned to China, we didn't believe it at first and thought it was a joke, but we didn't expect it to be our child." ”
On April 12, the Xihu District Branch of the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau reported that recently, the public security organs found and received reports from netizens that a self-media account posted a video on the Internet of "picking up the lost homework book of primary school student Qin Lang in Paris, France", which was suspected of spreading Internet rumors. The public security organs carried out investigations in accordance with the law.
After investigation, in order to attract fans and drain traffic, netizen Xu Moumou (female, 29 years old, online name "Thurman Cat Cup") and his colleague Xue Moumou (male, 30 years old) jointly planned and fabricated a series of video scripts of "Finding the Lost Homework Book of Elementary School Student Qin Lang", and then purchased the winter vacation homework book online, took selfies with mobile phones, made relevant videos, and spread them to multiple online platforms, causing a bad impact. At present, the public security organs have imposed administrative penalties on Xu, Xue and their companies in accordance with the law.
Case 3:
The list of prostitutes and prostitutes is "announced"?
Made up by AI!
At the end of March this year, Li in Bengbu, Anhui Province, accidentally found a "way to make money" on the Internet, that is, publishing articles on an APP and moving his fingers to earn a considerable amount of "pocket money". But Li knew that his "two catties", in the face of temptation, it was impossible to improve his writing level in the short term, so he started to "crooked brains" - the ability is not enough, and AI will make up for it.
On March 29th, after making all the preparations, Li registered an account on an APP, and used all kinds of AI software that he was already familiar with to enter the required information topics to automatically generate articles. Relying on this channel, Li published more than 300 articles in just one week.
However, the authenticity of AI-generated articles is a big problem, and almost all the information Li released directly without screening it, resulting in the rumor content mixed in it began to spread on the Internet. An article published by Li entitled "Bengbu Police Crack Down on Prostitution and Prostitution, Publish the Arrest List to Show Determination of the Legal System" caused trouble. The article said that the Bengbu police will publish a large number of information on the so-called prostitution and prostitution offenders, misleading readers into believing that the police are deliberately leaking citizen information. After the article was issued, it was read and followed by many netizens and forwarded by messages, which caused a great negative impact.
Just when Li was fantasizing about the continuous source of energy to obtain "pocket money", on April 8, the Cyber Security Brigade of the Bengshan Branch of the Bengbu Public Security Bureau and the police station in the jurisdiction came to the door together. After review, Li confessed to the illegal facts of his forgery and dissemination of false information, and in accordance with relevant laws, the Bengbu police placed Li under administrative detention in accordance with the law, and at the same time ordered the deletion of relevant rumor articles.
The Internet is not a place outside the law, Internet technology is increasingly updated, Xiaobian reminds everyone to use new Internet technologies and applications in accordance with the law, in accordance with regulations, and reasonably. The public security organs will resolutely crack down on those who use AI and other software to fabricate false or illegal information and disrupt social and public order.
In the current legal system of the mainland, the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, and the Law of the People's Republic of China on Public Security Administration Penalties all contain legal provisions that regulate the fabrication or dissemination of online rumors, and clearly stipulate the civil, administrative, and criminal liabilities for such acts. Fabricating or disseminating online rumors to disrupt the order of cyberspace, or disrupt public order, is suspected of violating the relevant provisions of the Public Security Administration Punishment Law, and where the circumstances are serious, it may also constitute crimes such as fabricating or intentionally disseminating false information, picking quarrels and provoking trouble, and extortion.
On September 25, 2023, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Punishing Online Violence Violations and Crimes in Accordance with Law". The "Guiding Opinions" clearly stipulate that all kinds of online violence and crimes shall be severely punished in accordance with the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, the Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, the Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China, the Public Security Administration Punishment Law of the People's Republic of China, and other relevant laws. Administrative liability and even criminal liability.
The Notice on Strengthening the Management of "Self-Media" issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China in 2023 clearly requires that "strengthen the management of information authenticity" and "the information published by self-media shall not be made out of nothing, shall not be taken out of context, distorted facts, and shall not affect the authenticity of information by means of patchwork editing, synthesis and forgery".
In 2024, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) will continue to carry out a series of special actions to "clear and clear", focusing on 10 rectification tasks, including "self-media" bottomless traffic, standardizing the generation of synthetic content logos, carrying out Internet news information services in violation of regulations, and false and vulgar chaos in the field of online live broadcasting, focusing on rectifying outstanding problems and chaos on the Internet, and promoting the continuous improvement of the online ecosystem.
Again, a reminder to everyone
The Internet is not a place outside the law
Do not publish and forward unverified false information
Don't spread rumors, don't believe rumors, don't spread rumors
Maintain a good network environment together
Source: China Popular Law