On December 14th, 2020, People’s Police of Yuhang District of Hangzhou, China, declared the start of a criminal investigation into two suspects, Mr. Lang and Mr. He, who used the internet as a tool for slander. The victim, Mrs. Wu, was cyberbullied as fake WeChat history screenshots were spread depicting a made-up story of her “dishonesty” towards her marriage. On July 7th, a photo of the victim receiving express mail at the gate of her residential area was taken by the two suspects, who were workers in a nearby convenience store. The two suspects came up with the idea of creating a story alleging the “love” between the mail worker and the victim. After the fake screenshots were put on Weibo, the famous Chinese social media site, the victim received a significant number of hurtful comments from the public, and her personal reputation was affected. She was fired by her company and failed to get a new job. She even suffered from depression because of the incident. Finally, she refused an apology from the two suspects and accused them of slander and cyberbullying at the Court of Yuhang District in Hangzhou. The sensational nature of the news story gained serious media attention, which helped restore the victim’s reputation, and social justice was achieved.
“Now the criminal investigation starts and I am able to restore reputation for myself. I would not accept any compensation, and I am not going to retreat in my legal rights. I will use my case as a warning for all people who are thinking about bullying another individual and as an example for victims of similar cases. I will make my tragedy meaningful for the whole society,” Mrs. Wu publicly stated.
We are living in the era of booming internet development, enjoying the enormous convenience brought by the internet, receiving a significant amount of information from the internet, and creating our own opinions based on the internet. However, technology is developing so fast that regulations and lawful requirements are not able to keep up. Under these sociological circumstances, people can be subjected to very threatening bullying from strangers or close persons. This creates a unique type of social pressure on internet dwellers, which is almost everyone in this modern society.

What is the reality and what has been done?

According to the United Nations, children face violence and bullying at school all over the world, with one in every three subjects to attacks at least once a month and one in 10 a victim of cyberbullying. As students’ screen time has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, the neglected, minimized, and often ignored the problem of cyberbullying is being highlighted by the merging of society from offline to online, and student vulnerability is increasing.
Gaps in Chinese cyber-security laws are being filled with the addition of strict new definitions and serious punishments for crimes related to slander and cyberbullying. According to the latest legal codes enforced by the China Internet Network Information Center, when a piece of digital information that spreads slanderous accusations, or actions that can be described as cyberbullying, reaches the threshold of 5,000 views or 500 forwards on any internet platforms, it can legally be defined as slander. If the author of the information knows that his or her actions could result in the distortion of another person’s reputation and the victim’s reputation is indeed damaged, the victim is diagnosed with a psychological illness, or committed suicide, as a direct result, or the victim experiences any form of economic loss, the author’s actions can be considered deliberate and they can be legally held responsible. This can lead to the author being found guilty of the commission of slander and penalized for the crime.

The Story of Mr. A

Here is a story that I personally experienced with one of my classmates, and let’s call him Mr. A. Mr. A had to repeat his seventh grade and therefore became my classmate. Due to the fact that he was flunked because of poor grades and the fact that he was quiet and unwilling to socialize, he was made fun of by the whole grade in our school. People spread rumors about his daily life and made fun of any academic goal that he achieved. It was normal for me to hear my classmates making jokes and telling stories about him during class breaks. When friend groups would chit-chat during breaks, I always saw him alone, sitting in his seat, not making any sound. He faced this type of pressure for almost half a year, until one day, he rebelled. During a math class, the teacher reported his absence, and the information was passed to the student leaders, of which I was one. As we went to different classrooms to ask if he did not come to school at all, we found out that he had just vanished during the math class. We ran across the campus and spread out to search for him, and we discovered him in a study room in the library, alone. When we asked him why he had escaped, he replied,
“All of you leave me alone, a**holes!”
Afterward, we, the student leaders, and the class dean had a conversation with him about the incident. As he explained that he could not withstand the scorn he received from his classmates and even from the teacher. He stated that when he was laughed at in math class after he was unable to answer a trick question from the teacher, he felt that he could no longer restrain his anger.
This example was just a case of school bullying, but, when such bullying takes place online, the pressure on the victim increases by ten-fold, especially when the identity of the bully is unknown. The victim experiences so much fear and uncertainty that it is hard to know how the victim will react.

Why is it a problem?

In order to understand the nature of cyberbullying, three aspects of the problem should be acknowledged, which are the sociology and biology of humans, the uniqueness of the issue, and the universality of the matter.
First of all, human biology makes us prone to value others’ perspectives of ourselves, creating the potential for cyberbullying to become a problem. As Charles Darwin stated in evolutionary theory, humans are social animals. In prehistoric eras, people live in communities. As each individual at that time held serious responsibilities for the community, humans’ perceptions of others were developed to ensure maximized efficiency. This led to individuals developing a propensity to value others’ perceptions towards themselves. This characteristic remained as humans evolved and kept socializing with others, becoming a mechanism for building self-esteem and confidence. Taking care of our appearance as we go to school or work or being polite in front of strangers are all great examples of the phenomenon.
Secondly, the peculiar nature of the online environment makes it particularly hard to develop law enforcement identical to the offline world. Most apps do not require users to enter a valid citizen ID or passport code, which creates an atmosphere that is partially anonymous and mostly disconnected from the real world and gives modern citizens a break from real-world disappointment. However, this friendly act of the app developers actually allows bullies to attack others without carrying lawful responsibility for the havoc they made. Even one Chinese internet celebrity, law professor Luo Xiang, was forced to leave the apps for a few weeks after being cyberbullied. Based on this theory, if most internet companies like TenCent and NetEase joined China’s internet police to complete the goal of requiring citizen ID or passport verification process for apps (personal information only visible to the police) to link anonymous accounts with authentic persons, this would ensure that each internet dweller behaves responsibly and give them the duty of securing a kinder internet environment.
Moreover, nowadays, each individual is inextricably linked to the internet. We cannot shake off our social role in the online world as easily as dusting-off snow. Just like being in offline society, we share a piece of modern technology, and each holds liability for maintaining a harmonic society. Unlike being face to face with the bully, cyberbullying does not depict the bully’s facial expressions, gestures, or appearance, which are important visual clues for people to communicate properly. Without these clues, internet-based information is mostly a cold-blooded line of words, which gives the victim more pressure due to the unfamiliarity of the person saying the hurtful words. “Don’t do unto others what you don’t want done unto you,” as Confucius states, people should receive this message.

Moving forward

Modern society should be civilized, and so should the internet world. As people’s awareness of the severity of cyberbullying increases as this piece of news circulates, it is important to think about what we should do to keep the internet moderate and friendly all the time. We should report potential cyberbullying cases to an app’s development team or the police when necessary.
Let me end this discussion with an intriguing quote, “some people are beautiful, some people are normal, some people are happy and free, some people are stressed and tiring, but they probably share the same hobby, which is criticizing others without standing in their shoes.”
Let’s remind ourselves not to be someone with that hobby.