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Elizabeth Dalziel/AP
Beijing, China
Beijing, China
Chinese ‘Human Flesh Search Engines’ Claim Another Victim
June 27, 2008 9:48 AM
A mob of Chinese ‘netizens’ banded together to track down and punish a 21-year old video blogger whose clip was deemed unpatriotic.
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Gao Qianhi, a 21-year old Chinese woman, recently posted an online video of herself complaining about the overwhelming amount of TV coverage of the earthquakes in southwest China: “You guys, if you're hit by the rubble, just go suffer by yourself quietly.”
Hours later, intimate details about Ms. Qianhi’s life were spread across the Internet by a mob of online vigilantes, or “netizens,” who use the Internet as a “human flesh search engine” to track down and punish people who publish material they deem inappropriate.
“Human Flesh Search Engine” is an imprecise translation of “ren’rou sou’suo,” which can also be translated as “human-assisted search engine.”
CNN refers to this practice as “Internet mobbing,” explaining that it most often occurs when “social norms are strict yet perceived as under threat. People are targeted when they are thought to have deviated from those norms.” Generally, the victim’s personal information is published to a broad audience, along with derogatory comments and death threats.
While there are instances of Internet mobbing in other countries, the movement appears to be particularly powerful in China. One information expert explained to New American Media that “large-scale human flesh search engines are unique to China [because] of China’s ubiquitous manpower and ingrained tradition of ‘people's war’ tracing back to Mao. On the other hand, because China's laws are imperfect, the Internet is seen as a way to seek justice.”
Hours later, intimate details about Ms. Qianhi’s life were spread across the Internet by a mob of online vigilantes, or “netizens,” who use the Internet as a “human flesh search engine” to track down and punish people who publish material they deem inappropriate.
“Human Flesh Search Engine” is an imprecise translation of “ren’rou sou’suo,” which can also be translated as “human-assisted search engine.”
CNN refers to this practice as “Internet mobbing,” explaining that it most often occurs when “social norms are strict yet perceived as under threat. People are targeted when they are thought to have deviated from those norms.” Generally, the victim’s personal information is published to a broad audience, along with derogatory comments and death threats.
While there are instances of Internet mobbing in other countries, the movement appears to be particularly powerful in China. One information expert explained to New American Media that “large-scale human flesh search engines are unique to China [because] of China’s ubiquitous manpower and ingrained tradition of ‘people's war’ tracing back to Mao. On the other hand, because China's laws are imperfect, the Internet is seen as a way to seek justice.”
Headline Link: ‘Chinese vigilantes … hunt victims on the Web’
Twenty-one-year-old Gao Qianhui of Laoning province posted a video of herself complaining that too much government and media attention was being devoted to the earthquakes in Southwest China: “Come on, how many of you died? Just a few, right? There are so many people in China anyway.” Within the next few hours, “every detail of Ms. Gao’s life, from her home and work address … to the fact that her parents were divorced, was dug up and published on hundreds of forums and chatrooms. ‘Now humiliate her,’ ordered one Internet user,” The London Times reports. The police later arrested Ms. Gao.
Source: The London Times
Reference: How “human flesh search engines” work
The human flesh search engine is essentially “online collaboration by Netizens to search via the power of China’s massive 225 million Internet users,” explain the authors of an upcoming book, “Supertrends of Future China.” According to the authors, the practice can sometimes lead to a “lynch-mob mentality.”
Source: China Supertrends
Background: The long arm of ‘netizen’ vigilantes
A 2007 CNN article details several instances of vigilantes around the world punishing civilians for Internet “transgressions.” Victims of Internet mobs are publicly humiliated, their names and personal information broadcast on a large scale. In many cases, they receive death threats. According to CNN, “The most concerning aspect of mobbing … is the way large groups of people can be mobilized to attack a perceived transgressor without their accusers providing any real evidence of their guilt. On the Internet, the mob can be judge and jury.”
Source: CNN
When the Olympic torch passed through San Francisco, a Chinese freshman at Duke University tried to mediate discussions between pro-Tibet and pro-China demonstrations. A day later, a photo of her appeared on the Internet with the words “Traitor to your country” written across her forehead. The story “spread through China’s most popular Web sites, at each stop generating hundreds or thousands of raging, derogatory posts, some even suggesting that Ms. Wang … be burned in oil. Someone posted a photo of what was purported to be a bucket of feces emptied on the doorstep of her parents, who had gone into hiding,” The New York Times explains.
Source: The New York Times
Opinion & Analysis: The appeal of ‘human flesh search engines’
New America Media reports that “As human flesh search engines have gained in popularity, the appetite for them has grown voracious—with marital affairs, sex scandals and violence their preferred targets. These are also the topics most guaranteed to attract the broadest participants and audience.” According to an information expert, it’s the country’s imperfect legal system that draws Chinese netizens to mete out civilian justice.
Source: New America Media
Related Topics: China online
Hacker threat
FindingDulcinea examines China’s emerging “cyber army” after two U.S. Congressmen accused China of hacking into their computers. According to the piece, national security agencies warned Americans visiting China for the Olympics this summer about the possibility of the Chinese hacking their electronic devices.
Source: findingDulcinea
Chinese Internet censorship
The Chinese government maintains control of what its citizens have access to online, though some restrictions will be relaxed as visitors pour into the country for the Olympics. “After pressure from the International Olympic Committee, the Beijing committee has promised fewer restrictions, but since some ISPs do the censorship themselves to avoid trouble with authorities, any ‘opening’ may not trickle down to every connection,” CNET reports.
Source: CNET
© 2008 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
