【英语中国】中国收紧对社交媒体的控制

Chinese authorities said that social-media users who post comments considered to be slanderous could face prison if the posts attract wide attention -- a ruling free-speech advocates criticized as an attempt to give legal backing to the suppression of online dissent.

Internet users will face charges of defamation -- and a possible three-year prison term -- if they create slanderous content that attracts at least 5,000 hits or is reposted at least 500 times, according to the judicial interpretation, copies of which were posted to state-media websites on Monday.

The document said slanderous posts that cause 'psychological imbalance, self-mutilation, suicide or other serious consequences' would also be considered defamatory.

Companies and people who seek to profit from slanderous postings face stiff fines and jail terms. People who start online rumors will be considered guilty of the crime of provocation and incitement, a crime previously applied to those who vandalize property, pick fights or create trouble in public places.

The new interpretation -- jointly issued by China's Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the top prosecutors' office -- provides Beijing with an added legal basis for its long-running effort to control conversation online.

Lawyers criticized the new ruling as overly broad and an attempt to discourage government critics. 'What's the point in even discussing this?' wrote lawyer Liang Xianglu. 'Law is not a root that will ever truly grow in this patch of earth. Instead it will always be a stick wielded by a bunch of thugs.'

Another lawyer, Wang Kesheng, wondered on his microblog account how the new rules would have affected Luo Changping, a journalist whose posts led to the dismissal of a top official this year.

The official Xinhua news agency quoted the Supreme People's Procuratorate spokesman Sun Jungong as saying the new interpretation isn't intended to discourage Internet users from exposing official wrongdoing.

'Even if some details of the allegations or what has been exposed aren't true, as long as [Internet users] aren't intentionally fabricating information to slander others . . . they won't be prosecuted on charges of defamation,' Xinhua quoted Mr. Sun as saying.

Authorities in charge of propaganda have grown increasingly jittery over the spread of social media, in particular Twitter-style microblogging services like Sina Corp.'s popular Weibo, which have challenged state media's previous dominance in disseminating information.

In recent months, the government has stepped up efforts to manage online activity, detaining dozens for spreading rumors and warning influential microbloggers with large numbers of followers to watch what they say.

Many posts critical of Monday's interpretation were deleted within hours of being posted.

Among the recent detentions were two men apprehended by Beijing police on Aug. 22 on suspicion of creating rumors in an effort to gain followers on Weibo. State media said the pair falsely claimed that an outspoken major general in the People's Liberation Army was a deserter with family living in the U.S., in addition to spreading other untruths.
Beijing police also announced last month that they had detained a local newspaper journalist, Liu Hu, on suspicion of provocation and incitement, though police didn't say why.
Several local media reports said that a week earlier, Mr. Liu had forwarded a social-media post alleging wrongdoing by a top official at the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, a business regulator.
Those cases and others have prompted questions from some lawyers and scholars about whether and how criminal laws should be applied in cyberspace.
In a report published Thursday and since deleted from its website, the influential Southern Weekly newspaper challenged the use of the charges of provocation and incitement in online cases.
The report quoted legal scholars who argued that the crime applied to actions that have negative consequences in physical public spaces like markets and airports, not in cyberspace.
The report also noted that defamation was a matter for a civil lawsuit, not criminal prosecution, except in cases where the defamatory statements 'seriously threaten social stability or national interests.'
By expanding the scope of both crimes to cover online activity, the new judicial interpretation 'violates the principles of criminal law,' said Xu Xin, a law professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology.
Mr. Xu took particular exception to the expanded use of provocation and incitement, which he described as a 'catchall' crime that is often abused by authorities. 'The legal community has been calling for this crime to be eliminated for years,' he said.

While admitting that rumor-spreading is a problem on Chinese social-media sites, free-speech advocates argue that authorities often define rumor broadly as anything that doesn't appear on state media, which is rigorously censored.

The expanded threat of prosecution prompted an outpouring of gallows humor on Sina Weibo. A number of postings joked that, instead of asking influential users to repost messages, they would instead start asking not to have their messages reposted.

Others forwarded along a new slogan: 'If you love someone, repost him. If you hate someone, repost him, too.'

中国有关部门表示，社交媒体用户如果发布被认定为诽谤他人的评论，并且其言论吸引广泛关注，则可能被判入狱。言论自由倡导者指责这一规定是在尝试为镇压网络上的不同声音提供法律支持。

根据中国国有媒体网站周一刊登的司法解释显示，互联网用户如果利用信息网络诽谤他人，同一诽谤信息实际被点击、浏览次数达到5,000次以上，或者被转发次数达到500次以上的，可构成诽谤罪，可能处三年以下有期徒刑。

社交媒体规定新华社援引孙军工的话报道说，即使检举、揭发的部分内容失实，只要不是故意捏造事实诽谤他人的，就不应以诽谤罪追究刑事责任。

宣传部门对社交媒体，尤其是类似推特(Twitter)的新浪(Sina Corp.)微博的担忧与日俱增。新浪微博已对国有媒体此前的信息传播主导地位构成挑战。

近几个月，政府已加大力度管理网上活动，拘留了许多散布谣言者，并警告具有影响力、有很多粉丝的微博用户注意他们的言论。

许多针对周一司法解释的批评言论在发布数小时内就被删掉。

最近被拘留的人中包括两名因涉嫌为吸引粉丝而在微博上制造谣言的男子，这两人于8月22日被北京警方拘留。国有媒体说，这两人造谣说中国人民解放军中一位直言不讳的主要将军曾当逃兵，其家人住在美国；此外，两人还散布了其他谣言。

北京警方上个月还公布说，当地报纸记者刘虎因涉嫌制造传播谣言已被北京警方拘留，不过警方没有透露原因。

多篇当地媒体报道说，在那之前一周，刘虎曾转发了一篇社交媒体文章，文章中称国家工商行政管理总局的一位高官存在违法行为。国家工商行政管理总局是一个商业监管部门。

上述案件以及其他一些案件引发了一些律师和学者的质疑，他们对刑法是否应该用于网络空间以及如何用于网络空间提出疑问。

在上周四在其网站上发布的一篇报道中，颇具影响的报纸《南方周末》对在网络案件中使用寻 滋事的指控提出质疑。这篇文章后来被从网站上删除。

报道援引了法律专家的话。专家们称这一罪名适用于在市场和机场等现实公共场所造成不良后果的行为，而不是在网络空间。

报道还指出，诽谤罪属民事诉讼，而非刑事诉讼，除非诽谤言论“严重危害社会秩序和国家利益”。

北京理工大学法学教授徐昕说，新的司法解释将诽谤罪和寻 滋事罪的范围扩大到网络活动，这样做违反了刑法原则。

徐昕尤其提到寻 滋事罪适用范围的扩大。他称寻 滋事罪作为一种“笼统”的罪名常常被当局滥用。他说，多年来法律圈一直在呼吁取消这项罪名。

尽管承认传播谣言在中国社交媒体网站上是一个问题，但主张言论自由的维权人士称，当局常常将谣言笼统界定为任何国有媒体上没有的东西。中国的国有媒体受到严格的审查。

罪名适用范围的扩大引发了新浪微博上大量反讽式的评论。一些微博开玩笑说，他们不求有影响的用户转发微博，而是开始请他们不要转发。

其他人纷纷转发了一句新口号：如果你爱一个人，转发他的微博。如果你恨一个人，也转发他的微博。