Internet rumors are a very widespread social "cancer"

Abstract: The spread of internet rumors, will bring about the harm to society? Prevention and control of Internet rumors, where should we start? This reporter interviewed the law, sociology and other fields of experts and scholars. Internet rumors are a very widespread social cancer network rumors have hidden

The spread of Internet rumors, will bring about the harm to society? Prevention and control of Internet rumors, where should we start? This reporter interviewed the law, sociology and other fields of experts and scholars.

Internet rumors are a very widespread social "cancer"

"The network rumor has the concealment, the speculation sex, the aggressiveness, the retaliation, the catharsis, the temptation sex, the compulsion and so on characteristic, has become the society ' cancer '." "Xueluan, a professor of sociology at Peking University, believes that the development of our network civilization is still in its infancy and that Internet rumors can easily become a factor causing social shocks and endangering public safety."

In the Wengan incident in Guizhou Province, there are rumors that "three suspects are relatives of local leaders", the deceased's uncle was brought to the police station for questioning. "In Hubei Shishou incident, there is a network of rumors," the deceased was aware of the local public security secretary, the President of the court and the wing Lung hotel owners smuggling drugs after the murder of "; Zhejiang" Qian "In the case, there is a network rumor that" Qian will be murdered "..." Almost every social unrest has been instigated and accompanied by rumours. " Chenber, an associate professor at Zhongnan Law School, said online rumors were a serious threat to social stability.

At the same time, Internet rumors can also damage the public's personal safety and property security. Recently, Gansu Province, Lanzhou, salt "price increase production" and other rumors, triggering a new round of looting salt storm. Some people credulous rumors, began to buy a lot of salt, many shopping malls, shops of salt was snapped. People snapping up salt for a short period of time will cause waste, and the real need for salt, especially some catering establishments, and because of snapping up buy salt. Chenber said, "with the fact that the larger or completely different rumors lie, with the help of the Internet and the spread of individual irresponsible media, it is easy to mislead the unknown truth netizens, harm many public interests." ”

Internet rumors can spread, to a large extent, the makers of rumors take advantage of some people's psychological weaknesses. Pan, vice president of the Chinese Society of Sociology and chief expert of Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, said some people like novelty, wonder, often with "others do not know I know" mentality, in order to seek stimulation, some people are herd mentality, "others know, I should know"; Lack of basic analytical and judgment skills, even if some rumors are illogical and flawed.

Pan further said that some network rumors can be called "bogey", very seductive and dangerous. It exploits people's psychological weaknesses, as tempting people to take drugs, slowly let people "addictive", anesthesia people's nerves, disturb the physiological function of people, so that the psychological become more and more abnormal, unhealthy, and then destroy the family, induce crime, corrupt social atmosphere, endanger the normal order of society.

Shanghai Municipal Party School Associate professor The Internet is a double-edged sword, in the promotion of social progress in China, but also become some people to invent, spread false information tools, become a rumor, preach rumors of the carrier, such as "Rumor Salt" storm, "military vehicles in Beijing" and other rumors is the use of network platform has been quickly spread. The emergence of network rumors, may cater for some people's feelings of insecurity and uncertainty during the period of social transformation, but many facts show that the breeding, spread and spread of all kinds of network rumors not only harm the rights and interests of citizens, disturb the social order, cause public panic, but also destroy the government's credibility and damage the image of the government. If rumors are rampant in cyberspace, everyone can be a victim. The officer said that the regulation of Internet rumors is the aspiration, the rule of law.

Rumor mongering is not freedom of speech

Wu Zhongmin, a sociology professor at the Central Party School, believes that citizens enjoy freedom of speech and that the government should be tolerant, tolerant and open-minded, smooth the normal channels of expression of public opinion, safeguard citizens ' freedom of expression and consciously accept social supervision. However, while enjoying the basic right of freedom of expression, the public should also assume social responsibility, fulfill the obligations of citizens, resist Internet rumors, maintain the environment of public opinion, and eradicate the existence of Internet rumors.

Xueluan said that although the network for people to provide a carrier and tools for communication, but the network chat or from people's mouths to say out, web messages also rely on people on the keyboard, a word is a reflection of people's thoughts. Virtual Society relies on the real society, and the behavior subject of virtual society is still the real person in the real society. Therefore, the rights and obligations that each person enjoys in the real world do not change or disappear because of the way they exist.

In response to the idea that Internet rumors are also expressions of free speech, Pan says, first, freedom is not absolute, but relative. Freedom should be in accordance with national conditions and conducive to economic and social development of the freedom, even in western society, if there are words, rumors affect the stability and development of society, will also be sanctioned. Therefore, online rumors are not within the bounds of freedom. Secondly, freedom should be within the framework of existing legal system, enjoy the right not to infringe the legitimate rights and interests of others. People are living in the society, the socialization of people and the minimum conditions to obtain citizenship, is to comply with legal norms, correct treatment of social relations, abide by the moral bottom line, the rule of law and the bottom line of truth. Rumors are often pointed to, whether it is against people or incidents of rumors, will inevitably infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of others, endangering public order, so this is not only a violation of social morality, but also violates the law, should not only resolutely resist, and should be the corresponding sanctions.

Deputy researcher of the Institute of Law Research, Cass, the network rumors not only appeared in China, but also a problem to be solved in the world, almost no country can be immune to internet rumors. For example, he said, South Korean artists are overwhelmed by the pressure of online rumors and suicide, after the great earthquake in Japan, rumors 90% from the Internet. "Freedom of speech" should not be an umbrella for Internet rumors to be exempted, said the branch. From the international point of view, South Korea and Japan have expressed the need to introduce laws to govern internet rumors, the United Kingdom also tried to use privacy and other relevant laws to uncover the "internet cloak", the United States announced that "the digital world will no longer be a legally binding territory."

The eradication of Internet rumors requires national action

It is common sense that the Internet is not a place outside the law. With the Internet and economic and social ties increasingly close, the network is no longer a virtual space, but a part of real life, is the extension of real life. Every person who is active in the Internet can find its counterpart in real life. Malicious fabricated spread of network rumors, the real life caused by the impact of the real sense, not at all virtual.

Therefore, Wu Zhongmin pointed out that the supervision of social public opinion, including Internet rumors, should be incorporated into the rule of law, form the normal supervision mechanism, strengthen the Internet management according to law, and investigate the legal responsibility of the network rumor maker and the disseminator.

Champo, lecturer at Nankai University Law School, said from the point of view of legal system construction, it is first to define the concept of network rumor and who to identify it, secondly, to perfect the law, make the Internet information related laws and public security management Punishment law, criminal law provisions, perfect the legal liability investigation system, to curb the breeding and spread of network rumors. On the other hand, we should speed up the construction of credit system and promote the sense of integrity on the Internet.

Acts without the law. The support vibration front expresses, eliminates the network rumor, more to follow the requirements of the rule of law, especially when citizens or organizations are hurt by rumors, should bravely take up the legal weapons to defend their rights, and if slander libel, the originator of the network rumors should also bear the corresponding civil, criminal responsibility, or accept the law and Order management punishment.

In addition to the legal construction, the government's information disclosure is also one of the necessary measures. Mo Guihong, a researcher at the Institute of Law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the most effective way to manage Internet rumors is to make the government's information disclosure system work effectively, to make the information public faster than the spread of rumors, so that rumors disappear under "Sunshine Information", The government and the public to form a common participation in the prevention of network rumors of the institutional barriers. Mo Guihong suggested that, first of all, the Government should work with the mainstream media to establish preventive mechanisms to prevent the spread of Internet rumors, establish specialized agencies, equip specialized personnel, and establish early warning mechanisms to prevent rumours from spreading; Secondly, we should grasp the development trend of network public opinion in time, and focus on the false information which may Take measures to control the development trend of network public opinion as early as possible; Finally, when rumors spread on the internet, with the characteristics of rapid dissemination, the Government should promptly and effectively open all kinds of information to clarify rumors have important role, let "information disclosure" to curb "rumor spread."

Experts believe that the network world is a public space, the management of network rumors should be a public action, the total purification of cyberspace also requires the joint efforts of the whole society.

"To deal with Internet rumors, the whole society should share the common hatred and reach a consensus of 0 tolerance." Mo Guihong says rumors are social hazards, and everyone has something to do with it. On the one hand, to increase the legal publicity and education, to improve the quality of citizens, in the whole society to form a "shameful rumor, the letter rumor sad," the consensus, every citizen should do not rumor, do not believe that rumors, do not preach rumors, should dare to refute, and rumors of confrontation, do not let the rumor-mongering, and the people.

Many experts said that the website and the media should consciously bear the responsibility and obligation to eliminate the network rumors. "In order to attract eyeballs, seize the selling point, realize the maximization of economic benefits, is in line with the principle of market economy, but thus ignoring the control of information release, false information to ignore the rumor, it is irresponsible performance." "In order to manage network rumors, clean cyberspace, Web sites and media can not evade the public mission, should be actively responsible for the good network environment Guardian." This needs to strengthen the screening and monitoring of various kinds of information, do their best to audit the illegal information, effective filtering of false information, timely deletion of network rumors. And in the case of rumors, we must actively release the rumor, to curb the amplification and dissemination of rumors. ”