A self-media blogger was sentenced to one year in prison for defamation. He spread the rumor that the photo of grandparents and grandchildren was "old husband and young wife" and was read 470 million times.
This afternoon, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security issued the "Guiding Opinions on Punishing Internet Violence Violations and Crimes in accordance with the Law" and also released typical cases of punishing Internet violence violations and crimes in accordance with the law. A reporter from Jiefang Daily and Shangguan News noticed that the top typical case was the "Feige is in Dongguan" rumor-mongering case that has attracted widespread attention.
In November 2021, a netizen named "Brother Fei is in Dongguan" posted a post with a picture on the online platform: "A 73-year-old entrepreneur from Qingxi, Dongguan married a 29-year-old beauty from Guangxi, with a gift of 880,000 for a second house. The apartment comes with a luxury car.” This information spread quickly on the Internet and attracted a lot of attention. Later, the person involved in the photo posted a message stating that it was a photo she posted with her grandfather on social media in 2018, but was rumored to be an "old husband and young wife." Soon, "Brother Fei in Dongguan" was arrested by the public security organs.
The court found that the defendant Wu Moumou made up stories on the online platform using his personal account "Brother Fei is in Dongguan" to attract fans and increase traffic for real estate sales. On November 19, 2021, Wu Moumou browsed the "Daily Life with Grandpa" post posted by the victim Shen Moumou on the Internet, then downloaded and used the post picture to post on the above-mentioned online account, fabricating "73-year-old Dongguan" A Qingxi entrepreneur marries a 29-year-old Guangxi beauty and gives her gifts, an apartment and a luxury car." The above-mentioned posted information was widely reprinted and discussed on the Internet, causing netizens to wantonly abuse and slander Shen. The number of discussions on the above-mentioned posted information on relevant online platforms was 75,608, forwarded 31,485 times, and read 4.7 times. More than 100 million times, causing extremely negative social impact. In addition, the defendant Wu Moumou also fabricated and published defamatory information online against Min.
The First People's Court of Dongguan City, Guangdong Province ruled that: Wu Moumou fabricated facts to slander others on the information network, the circumstances were serious, and it seriously endangered social order. Based on the circumstances of the defendant's crime and his confession and punishment, Wu Moumou was sentenced to one year in prison for defamation. The judgment has taken legal effect.
When talking about the typical significance of this case, the "Two High Schools and One Ministry of Education" pointed out that traditional insults and slanders mostly occur between acquaintances. In order to better protect the privacy of the parties and repair social relations to the greatest extent, the Criminal Law includes such cases as It stipulates that cases will only be dealt with upon complaint, and sets out exceptions for “seriously endangering social order and national interests.”
However, with the advent of the Internet age, the targets of insults and slander have undergone significant changes. Take online violence as an example. The insults and defamations involved are often committed against strangers. Victims have practical difficulties in identifying the perpetrators and collecting evidence, and the cost of rights protection is extremely high. In this regard, it is necessary to accurately grasp the conditions for public prosecution of insult and defamation crimes, and prosecute cases of online insult and defamation that seriously endanger social order in accordance with the law. It should be noted that online insults and defamation of randomly selected targets can cause relevant information to spread online at "internet speed" and quickly trigger large-scale negative comments. This not only seriously infringes on the victim's personality rights, but also creates "everyone's own rights and interests" "Dangerous" group panic has seriously affected the public's sense of security and should be used as an important judgment factor for "seriously endangering social order."
The "Opinions" released this time clarify that procuratorial organs should initiate public prosecutions in accordance with the law for criminal acts of insult and defamation that seriously endanger social order and national interests, and can initiate public interest litigation in accordance with the law for online violence that harms social and public interests. Whether online insults and defamation seriously endanger social order should be determined based on factors such as the target of the infringement, motivation and purpose, mode of behavior, scope of information dissemination, and harmful consequences. The "Opinions" also require that the spirit of severe punishment should be reflected in the illegal crimes of cyber violence, and the focus should be on cracking down on malicious initiators, organizers, malicious promoters and those who persist in admonition. Those who commit cyber violence crimes and fall under any of the following five circumstances shall be severely punished in accordance with the law: those who commit crimes against minors or persons with disabilities; those who organize "trolls", "thugs" or other personnel to commit them; those who fabricate "sexually related" topics Infringing on the personal dignity of others; using generative artificial intelligence technology such as "deep synthesis" to publish illegal information; initiated and organized by network service providers.
