How to treat the foul smelling "online toilet"? Anonymous personal attacks and P celebrity ugly images lead to online | account | toilet
"Online toilets" can be roughly divided into two categories: one is mainly discussed by ordinary people and netizens. Due to anonymity, many people regard "online toilets" as a place to vent freely, including personal attacks, insults, etc; The other type usually focuses on social public figures as the main discussion objects, and some "toilet accounts" deliberately post ugly pictures of celebrities created by P to induce fans to curse and fight
The "online toilet" is filled with various negative content, like a dirty and chaotic emotional toilet. With the continuous accumulation of "filth and disorder", negative and negative emotions are becoming extreme, such as illegally disclosing personal confidential information of the "victim", engaging in various malicious and unethical insults and extreme discussions, forming cyberbullying, and even leading to self harm and suicide
Suggest relevant departments and platform managers to increase supervision and intervene in a timely manner. Based on the development of the "online toilet" culture, continuously optimize and improve the sensitive word processing system to prevent the release of illegal content; Improve specialized reporting channels; Appropriately increase the severity of punishment and measures, and hold participants in the "online toilet" culture accountable in accordance with the law for causing adverse effects
"The photo I posted on my social media platform was inexplicably 'hung up' by someone else, who made many derogatory comments about me, and the comment section was also full of personal attacks on me. I was very angry and sad, but there was nothing I could do." Ms. Tan, a role-playing enthusiast from Jiangmen, Guangdong, was recently informed by a friend that a set of COS photos she posted on social media had been 'hung up' by someone.
The so-called "hanging toilet" refers to the "toilet account" where the photos, behaviors, or comments of the parties involved are submitted by netizens to social media platforms, also known as the "online toilet"; The "toilet number" is a popular type of voice over the air account in the anime, star followers and game circle. Netizens can send a private message to the account through the background for submission, and the account owner will send the submission anonymously.
Due to the anonymity of submissions, many people regard the "online toilet" as a place for casual venting. A recent investigation by a reporter from the Legal Daily found that in the content of "online toilets", there are many derogatory words, personal attacks, insults, etc. towards others, and the comment section is also frequently filled with verbal abuse. It is worth noting that many of the followers, contributors, and followers of "online toilets" are minors.
How should we view the widespread existence of "toilet numbers"? Is it considered cyberbullying to insult people by hanging the toilet without restrictions? Does the relevant platform lack supervision over "online toilets"? How to rectify it? With these questions in mind, the reporter conducted an investigation and interview.
Attacking others recklessly and deliberately inducing verbal abuse to attract traffic
Just because she posted a game review post, Shanghai resident Ms. Bai was "hung on the toilet".
In June of this year, a friend of a certain social media platform suddenly sent a private message to her, sending a screenshot of a post: someone posted a screenshot of Ms. Bai's above comment on the online "toilet account" and "don't steal XX", and criticized her. The comment section echoed her, mixed with a lot of insulting comments.
"Different opinions can be exchanged, but why insult others by 'hanging the toilet'?!" Ms. Bai felt very puzzled and aggrieved.
And this is not the first time that Ms. Bai has been "hung on the toilet" - in May this year, she posted a set of anime photos of herself in the online space, which were also submitted to the "toilet account", and were scolded by the contributors and netizens for "picking up" and "garbage". After learning about it, she sent a private message to the account requesting the deletion of the above submission, but she never received a response.
"Why do they recklessly attack others on the internet?" Ms. Liu from Shandong often shares her paintings on social media, but since June this year, her paintings have been submitted to multiple "toilet accounts" such as "Huoying XX", accompanied by a large number of criticism comments such as "Dajie really shameless", "This picture is so ugly", and "Auntie's picture is ugly, get out of the XX circle".
Ms. Liu angrily said that if you feel that the drawing is not good, you can give feedback, but there is no need to anonymously submit articles to guide others to insult together. "Such 'toilet numbers' should be boycotted.".
According to a journalist's investigation, "online toilets" can be roughly divided into two categories:
One is to focus on ordinary people and netizens, such as the "poor toilet", "roommate roast toilet", "appearance anxiety toilet" and "COS toilet". Some of these accounts have certain restrictions on submission, such as the clear submission rules for "Qiong and XX", and those who make insulting comments such as "you deserve to be poor" will be directly blacklisted; Some allow or even encourage submissions that engage in verbal attacks recklessly, such as in COS toilet "cosine xxxx" where there is a lot of mockery that looks a bit like a maggot.
The pictures of Ms. Tan and others were submitted to such accounts. Ms. Tan told reporters that in their circles, such accounts are "notorious". COS, anime, game circles, etc. are relatively small, and many people know each other. Once they are "hung up on the toilet", they are often seen by people they know very quickly, and a lot of abuse will also cause trouble and even psychological problems for the people involved.
Another type of account usually focuses on social public figures, such as celebrity artists, for example, a group of idols or artists using their own restrooms, going back to the restroom after losing fans, etc. These types of accounts usually do not have any restrictions on submissions, and many account submission rules also indicate that the content of submissions will not be reviewed, while completely implementing anonymity. For example, the submission rules of the "Ke Bu Ke XX" account in the artist's restroom are clear: even if there are rumors in the submitted content that cause disputes among fans, the submitter's account will not be publicly disclosed, nor will the submission be deleted.
These types of "toilet accounts" are filled with aggressive comments, some of which contain malicious images, fake videos, provocative comments, and even insults to fans. In the submissions sent by the "K-xxxx" account, there are some humiliating comments towards female artists.
Mr. Shen from Shenzhen, Guangdong is deeply troubled by these accounts. He said that these "toilet accounts" deliberately post some ugly celebrity images created by P, inducing both fans and black fans to curse and attract traffic to their own accounts. "I am really angry to see my favorite celebrity being insulted so much, and the curse is really too unpleasant, but once I argue or even join the curse, I fall into the trap of being attracted by the other party.".
"The existence of 'online toilets' should not exist. The lack of bottom line statements has turned the internet into a place full of hostility, and efforts should be made to strengthen rectification." Mr. Shen said.
The accumulation of negative emotions leads to the problem of infringement and online violence
During the investigation, the reporter found that if it is a group that has never been in contact with relevant circles, it is difficult to search for online "toilet numbers" through keywords. However, if you are a COS, anime, animation and other specific circles of netizens, even if you do not deliberately follow such accounts, there is a great probability that you will receive the push of such accounts because of the social platform's "like by friends", "follow by friends", "interest push" and other functions. And after "hanging the toilet", if it causes controversy, the higher the reading and comment volume in pulling and cursing, the easier it is for netizens who have followed this field to receive push notifications.
Through incomplete search, the content posted by these "toilet accounts" often contains offensive comments, with a large number of fans, some with over 100000 followers and over 10000 articles. Looking at the past posts and comment sections of these accounts, the reporter found that many of the "hanging toilets" and publicly insulting account subjects in the comment section were minors. For example, in the account "Snowy Owl XX", the contributors were middle and high school students, and the content of the submissions was mostly dissatisfaction or even cursing towards the school, classmates, teachers, and others. On a certain social platform, there is a dedicated "toilet talk" where many netizens refer to themselves as "toilet girls" and "toilet friends", openly recruiting friends, "hanging" people, or recommending "toilet numbers".
According to Zheng Chunfeng, a teacher at the Yangtze River School of Journalism and Communication at Shantou University, "toilet accounts" belong to an anonymous social circle in the online space. In the early stages of development, the culture of "online toilets" was only accepted and published anonymously by netizens around certain interests such as celebrities and anime. However, some accounts gradually became radical, negative, and extreme in their development process, filled with various negative content, such as insults, "hanging" people, sarcastic and sarcastic remarks, strange emotions, and venting malice, "like a dirty and chaotic emotional toilet.".
"Just like the word 'toilet' in this name, it itself is a gathering of various negative and immoral information and emotions. Zheng Chunfeng said that the accumulation of 'dirty and messy' in the 'toilet' will lead to the extreme of negative and negative emotions, such as illegally disclosing personal confidential information of the 'victim', engaging in various malicious and immoral insults and extreme discussions, forming cyberbullying, and even causing self harm and suicide.".
Zhao Zhiyong, Deputy Director of Shanghai Lizhen Law Firm, told reporters that the characteristics of "online toilet" culture lie in anonymity and isolation, providing users with an anonymous and isolated space. Users can vent without external interference and do not have to worry about their true identity being exposed. Meanwhile, the culture of "online toilets" is extreme and controversial, leading to some incidents of online violence.
"Malicious attacks and defamation, infringement of privacy, dissemination of false information, incitement of hatred and violence, and the use of platforms for illegal activities in the 'online toilet' have already involved illegal activities such as damaging the rights and interests of others, damaging the online environment, and inciting online violence, and need to be resisted. Each of us has a responsibility to maintain a healthy, positive, and beneficial online environment. Zhao Zhiyong said that publishing false information about others or using others' portraits for malicious attacks in the 'online toilet' is an infringement of the right to portrait and reputation.".
He also pointed out that the malice and aggressiveness in the culture of "online toilets" can exacerbate and mislead the spread of rumors. People are more likely to find people with similar views online, thus ignoring or attacking those with different views, further exacerbating social polarization. Long term immersion in "online toilets" can also easily distort the moral, value, life, and worldview of some users.
Zhen Jingshan, Deputy Director of Beijing Xingquan Law Firm, believes that the main participants of "online toilets" are minors or young people who encounter difficulties in life. They have formed a unique language system, such as homophones, symbols, codes, etc. It is difficult for ordinary people to discover the existence of "online toilets" and understand the meaning of their published content. However, the emerging phenomenon of "online toilets" is constantly developing and showing a trend of wild growth, which requires effective regulation from the legal and platform governance levels.
Difficulty in identifying infringement concealment and strengthening platform regulatory responsibility
Recently, many netizens have jointly posted on social media platforms calling for the boycott of online "toilet accounts" that contain offensive remarks. At the same time, some people have taken screenshots of content related to verbal abuse, intentional troublemaking, and spreading rumors in the "toilet account" and reported it to social media platforms, hoping that the platform can delete and ban the illegal content. Among them, there are many celebrity fan sites with a large number of followers who take the lead in complaining, and there are thousands of comments on the complaint post "Complaint Check in".
However, as of the time of publication, the reporter found that several online "toilet accounts" that had been complained about were still actively posting "hanging people", and there was still a lot of cursing in the post text and comment section. Even some "toilet accounts" sent a response after being boycotted, saying that the operation of the account "is to maintain the friendly and humorous atmosphere of the Internet, and the original intention is to provide a new way to relax for contemporary young people who are under heavy pressure".
So, why are there so many difficulties in reporting and handling such accounts?
Zhen Jingshan believes that the main reason is that the infringement behavior occurring in "online toilets" has strong concealment, and relevant parties, including platforms, are difficult to make accurate judgments. On the one hand, the content publishing subject is anonymous, making it difficult to identify the infringing party; On the other hand, related published content often uses the unique language system of "online toilets", such as homophones, pinyin abbreviations, and code words, which are difficult for ordinary people to understand and difficult to determine content infringement.
In Zheng Chunfeng's view, factors such as difficulty in searching for accounts, strong circle isolation, and high anonymity among internal members make reporting and handling difficult. At the same time, users who participate in submissions and internal personnel of their accounts have a relatively high level of loyalty to the "toilet rule system". Even if there are conflicts and contradictions within the system, they are more inclined to handle them with "online martial arts rules".
Interviewing experts unanimously agree that for the culture of "online toilets" that grow savagely and even potentially guide online violence, it is necessary to strengthen supervision and carry out rectification.
Zhen Jingshan suggests that relevant departments and platform managers increase their supervision and intervene in a timely manner to further implement the online real name system, requiring publishers to only publish submissions from those who have undergone online real name authentication; Restrict the release of content and the obligation of registrants to review online "toilet accounts", and continuously optimize and improve the sensitive word processing system based on the development of "online toilet" culture, so that illegal content cannot be released; Establish a dedicated reporting channel for online "toilet numbers" and further improve corresponding management norms; Appropriately increase the punishment and measures, and hold participants in the "online toilet" culture accountable in accordance with the law for causing adverse effects.
"If a contributor uses the 'online toilet' to infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of others, the infringed party shall notify the online platform and provide preliminary evidence, and the online platform refuses to take necessary measures, or knowingly fails to take necessary measures knowing that the contributor is committing infringement, according to relevant provisions of the Civil Code, the online platform shall bear corresponding legal responsibilities." Zhen Jingshan said.
According to Zhao Zhiyong, the "Notice on Effectively Strengthening the Governance of Cyber Violence" and the "Guiding Opinions on Punishing Cyber Violence Violations in accordance with the Law" have all made very clear regulations on cyberviolence. Regulatory authorities can intervene and regulate by strengthening supervision and inspection, establishing reporting mechanisms, and strengthening cross departmental cooperation. Social platforms also need to further improve their internal management systems, strengthen technical means review, enhance user education, actively cooperate with regulatory authorities, and strictly manage their accounts.
"We also need to pay attention to the reasons for the emergence of the 'online toilet' culture, and help 'toilet girls' and' toilet friends' overcome difficulties by improving and popularizing social work, sex education, anti sexual assault education, mental health education, etc." said Zhao Zhiyong.
For individuals, Zhao Zhiyong believes that if a user's personal information is leaked, they can protect their rights in accordance with relevant laws and regulations such as the Personal Information Protection Law. It is recommended that users pay attention to preserving relevant evidence, such as screenshots, links, etc., and report inappropriate remarks or behaviors through the platform's internal reporting mechanism; If the platform fails to handle it in a timely manner or mishandles it, it can report to the Cyberspace Administration or public security organs, and can also file a lawsuit with the court in accordance with the law, requesting the infringing party to stop infringing and compensate for losses.
