To make it easier for victims to protect their rights, Xinhua News Agency commented: curb cyberbullying | cyberbullying | protect their rights
Xinhua News Agency reporter Lu Chang
"The overwhelming amount of vulgar language makes me feel like I'm drowning, but I know I need to step forward. If I choose to silently endure without even defending my rights, it will have a very negative impact on my body, psychology, and even personality."
This is a confession from a 24-year-old female graduate student during an interview during her lifetime. At that time, she was suffering from cyberbullying due to dyeing pink hair, and soon the girl died of depression due to the pressure of the internet.
When most people believe that online violence is aimed at public figures to "find fault" and "grab traffic", it has already regarded ordinary people as "prey"... The contrast that online violence brings to the real world is tragic and unfair: victims suffer long-term psychological trauma, and even pay the price of life, while online perpetrators use the small calculation of "not blaming the public" to disappear in the cyberspace.
Some people can't help but ask, why don't victims of cyberbullying pick up legal weapons to defend their rights? The answer lies in the word "difficult".
In the judicial practice of our country, cases of cyberbullying involving "serious harm to social order and national interests" should be prosecuted by the procuratorial organs. However, for cyberbullying involving personal attacks such as insults and defamation suffered by ordinary citizens, the vast majority of them need to assert their rights through private prosecution or civil litigation channels.
This poses two challenges for victims of cyberbullying: on the one hand, when faced with the behavior of unfamiliar netizens, ordinary people have almost no ability to determine the responsible party and conduct evidence investigation. Even if they seek help from platform companies, they may be politely rejected by companies on the grounds of "needing to protect user privacy", making it difficult for victims to file self prosecution or civil litigation requests; On the other hand, in response to the actual spread and negative impact of cyberbullying information, victims also need to pay high time and economic costs to collect it. Faced with a massive number of anonymous netizens and the emergence of speech information on various social platforms, the helplessness of victims of cyberbullying can be imagined.
From past cases, it is necessary to effectively reduce the cost of protecting the rights of victims and establish a rapid crackdown mechanism in order to deal with violence in accordance with the law. To make victims of cyberbullying no longer fight alone and truly feel the power of the rule of law.
To this end, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security have recently drafted the Guiding Opinions on Punishing Cyber Violence Violations in accordance with the Law. In the draft guidance for soliciting opinions released this time, more clear, specific, and actionable provisions have been made for the accurate application of laws, smooth litigation procedures, and improvement of comprehensive governance measures. This demonstrates the country's firm determination to govern online violence and provides norms for effectively combating online violence, which is of great significance.
In the continuous development of network technology, large platform enterprises generally possess strong technical capabilities such as data processing and content auditing. They must strengthen their main responsibilities, actively cooperate with public security organs to carry out evidence collection investigations, quickly lock in relevant account and information, and provide a solid foundation for victim rights protection and the next step of crackdown and punishment work.
The public solicitation of opinions on the "Two Highs and One Department" initiative is a crucial step in China's crackdown on online violence. However, it should also be noted that punishing cyberbullying requires actively promoting the transition from private prosecution to public prosecution. By further clarifying the standards for prosecuting crimes of insult and defamation, activating the "dormant law", and incorporating online punishment into the conventional scope of criminal law regulation, the results of criminal punishment can form a strong deterrent force. Previously, in the case of a woman in Hangzhou being falsely accused and having an affair while picking up a package, the victim was held criminally responsible for defamation, and ultimately transitioned from private prosecution to public prosecution.
I believe that in future judicial practice, judicial organs can gather more joint efforts to safeguard social fairness and justice.
