China's virtual vigilantes: Civic action or cyber mobs?

　　By Peter Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

　　from the November 28, 2008 edition

　　Beijing - Some call it a weapon in the hands of a righteous army, forged so that wrongdoers might be smitten. Others say it simply allows a mob of vigilantes to publicly vilify and humiliate anyone they choose to pick on through grotesque invasions of privacy.

　　Either way, the peculiarly Chinese Internet phenomenon known as the "human flesh search engine," a citizen-driven, blog-based hunt for alleged undesirables, claimed a fresh victim this month when a mid-ranking government official lost his job.

　　Accused of accosting a young girl, Lin Jiaxiang found his name, address, phone number, and workplace plastered all over Chinese cyberspace for 250 million Internet users to see, and his alleged crime the subject of hundreds of insulting blog postings.

　　Mr. Lin might be thought to have gotten his just deserts, especially since the police refused to prosecute him because he'd been drunk. Grace Wang, however, a Chinese student at Duke University, was outraged when netizens back home, offended by her efforts to mediate a campus dispute between pro-Tibetan and Chinese students last March, tracked down her parents' address and emptied a bucket of feces by their front door.

　　Once the actions of Ms. Wang and Lin had attracted attention in Internet chat rooms, both were quickly identified by people who recognized the photos of them posted on the Web.

　　It was not long before others who knew them had created an ad hoc human flesh search engine, and began posting many other personal details about the two.

　　With more Internet users than anywhere else in the world, there is no shortage of amateur detectives ready to join the hunt. And with chat rooms the only public space where Chinese citizens can express themselves anonymously and with any real freedom, they have become forums for strong opinions on many issues.

　　"It is a tradition in China," says Yu Hai, a sociologist at Shanghai's Fudan University. "People here like to moralize. And since traditional media are government mouthpieces, the Internet has become a very convenient channel for ordinary people to vent their feelings."

　　They can do so pretty much however they like, not only because they can disguise their identities, but also because there is no privacy law in China yet. "There is no practicable, feasible, and concrete legal instrument" to regulate Internet use, says Li Xu, deputy head of Tsinghua University's Institute for Internet Behavior.

　　One man who found himself the quarry of a human flesh search, Wang Fei, is testing the law by bringing China's first suit against websites that he says carried defamatory statements about him.

　　Mr. Wang drew the ire of fellow Internauts after his wife committed suicide last year. Her diary, posted posthumously by her sister, voiced suspicions that Wang had an affair with a colleague. The blogosphere blamed Wang for his wife's death, and turned on him with a vengeance.

　　"You will fall into the endless darkness and abyss of misery hated by billions" read one post, labeling Wang a "beast" and "scum."

　　The virtual insults spilled over into real life. Someone painted "blood for blood" on Wang's front door, his lawyer said. He and his relatives were bombarded with furious telephone calls, and he was fired from his job at an advertising agency, along with his alleged mistress.

　　"Those websites published insulting, defamatory, and untrue information about Wang that damaged his reputation ... and violated his privacy," argues his lawyer, Zhang Yanfeng. "He is suing them for damages, for mental distress, and lost earnings."

　　The case has already taken nine months and will probably not come to judgment until next spring, says Mr. Zhang, because of "a great many disagreements" among the judges and the expert witnesses.

　　Among the issues the court must resolve, in the absence of any clear legislation, is whether information such as a cellphone number, an ID card number, or an address can be said to be private. The judges must also consider how far website managers are responsible and legally liable for posts on their sites, and weigh the competing interests of free speech and privacy protection.

　　A poll published earlier this year in the China Youth Daily found that nearly 80 percent of respondents thought that human-flesh search engines should be regulated, and 65 percent thought they invaded people's privacy.

　　The dilemma, says Dr. Li, is that "allowing arbitrary speech with no regulation ... violates privacy rights. But if you over-regulate citizens' ability to express themselves, the Internet will lose its very nature and its attraction."

　　Drawing too heavy a cloak around personal privacy, moreover, would protect abusive officials from the public pillorying they deserve, argues Liu Deliang, head of the Asia-Pacific Institute for Cyberlaw Studies.

　　"Ordinary people have no enforceable right to supervise government officials' behavior or to control the corruption they see everywhere," he says. "So they use the Internet to do that."

　　"Human-flesh searches are a neutral technology that can be used for good or ill," says Dr. Liu. "But they must strike a balance between public and private interests."

　　美国《基督教科学箴言报》11月28日载署名Peter Ford的文章：China's virtual vigilantes: Civic action or cyber mobs?，摘要如下 (英语原文附后)：

　　有人称它是“正义之师手中的武器，可以惩罚坏人”，也有人说是它“让暴民得以通过隐私侵犯方式，公开诽谤和羞辱被他们选中的人”。

　　不管怎样，这种独特的中国网络现象被称为“人肉搜索引擎”，网民以博客为基础追捕所谓的“社会渣滓”。11月份的“最新牺牲品”是地方政府的一位中层官员，他因此丢掉了工作。

　　被指猥亵一位小姑娘的林嘉祥(曾为深圳海事局原党组书记、副局长)发现自己的名字、地址、电话号码以及工作地点，被张贴在中国互联网上，供2.5亿网民查阅。而且他所谓的“罪行”，成为数百篇侮辱性博文的主题。

　　一旦成为互联网聊天室关注的目标，就会很快被人从网上照片上认出来。不久之后，网民就会为他们建立一个特别的“人肉搜索引擎”，幷开始大量张贴目标对象的个人信息。

　　中国互联网用户比其他任何国家都多，因此不会缺乏那些有志于加入追捕队伍的“业余侦探”。而且，聊天室是中国公民可以匿名、自由表达想法的公开场合，因此它们变成很多热点话题的论坛。复旦大学社会学教授余海表示：“传统媒体是政府喉舌，因此互联网变成普通民众发泄感受的便利渠道。”

　　中国网民几乎可以为所欲为，不仅仅因为他们可以掩饰身份，而且因为中国还没有隐私法。清华大学网络行为研究所副所长李旭表示，目前没有具体可行的法律工具，约束互联网使用。

　　而最近变成“人肉搜索”对象的北京市民王菲正考验中国法律。他起诉若干网站，说它们发表诽谤他的声明，这样的起诉在中国尚属首例。王菲的妻子去年自杀，她的博客透露，她怀疑丈夫与一位同事有染。网民把她的死归咎于王菲，幷发起报复。虚拟空间的侮辱蔓延到现实生活中，王菲的律师张雁峰表示，有人在王菲门前涂上“血债血偿”的字样。王菲及亲戚遭到电话轰炸，而他本人及其所谓的情妇被公司辞退。张雁峰表示，此案已历时9个月，很可能到明年春天才会有结果，因为法官和专家证人之间有很多分歧。

　　由于相关法律不明确，法院必须解决的问题之一就是手机电话、身份证号码或地址算不算隐私。法官们还必须考虑网站负责人要负多大责任，以及要对帖子承担多少法律责任，还有如何权衡自由言论与隐私保护。

　　《中国青年报》的网上在线调查显示，近80%的回答者认为，应该规范“人肉搜索引擎”，65%的回答者认为它们侵犯了隐私。李旭认为，“棘手之处在于，放任言论……会侵犯隐私权，但如果过度管束民众表达，互联网就失去了本质和吸引力。”

　　此外，亚太网络法律研究中心主任刘德良认为，过度强调个人隐私可能会保护一些滥权的官员。“普通民众没有可行的权利去监督政府官员的行为，或者控制处处可见的腐败，因此他们使用互联网。”他表示，“人肉搜索是一门中性的技术，可以行善也可以作恶，但必须在公共和私人利益之间取得平衡。”

[ 本帖最后由 tred 于 2009-1-2 18:13 编辑 ]

I appreciate the patience, time and various efforts of the poster to post this message together with translation. thank you.

i see  thanks      thanks thank sthanks thanks   thanks

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yeah, China should open up more, but still keeping our culture and traditions of course

DAP typically means double anal penetration, not digit anal probe.