Is it illegal for the law to make rumors on the Internet?

According to the law, it is obviously illegal to make rumors online. Although there is no crime of spreading rumors in law, it is clear that spreading rumors can constitute a crime of libel. Whoever fabricates false information and intentionally spreads it on the information network, which seriously disturbs social order, may be investigated for legal responsibility for libel.

1. Is it illegal for the law to spread rumors online?

According to the law, it is obviously illegal to spread rumors on the Internet. Although there is no crime of spreading rumors in law, there is a crime of libel. According to the provisions of Article 291 of the Criminal Law, fabricating false dangers, epidemics, disasters and warnings and spreading them on information networks or other media, or spreading them on information networks or other media knowing that they are false, which seriously disrupts social order, constitutes defamation and can be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years. If serious consequences are caused, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years.

Second, whether libel constitutes the boundary of libel.

To distinguish between libel crime and non-crime, we should pay attention to the boundary between libel crime and public security tort and civil tort. The crime of libel, which constitutes the crime of libel, must be serious, while the crime of libel in violation of public security management regulations must be limited to a range that is not enough for criminal punishment.

Civil acts against the right of reputation are not only less illegal than libel and libel in violation of public security regulations, but also have the following differences:

(1) The crime of libel must spread fabricated and false facts. If you spread objective facts, it will do harm to others' personality and reputation, but it does not constitute libel. Reputation infringement, even if the content is true, will damage the personality and reputation of others as long as it is prohibited by law, and it can also constitute reputation infringement. Even the truer the facts, the more serious the infringement. For example, exposing others' privacy in order to damage their reputation, the more real it is, the worse its infringement nature is.

(2) Legal persons, groups and organizations cannot be the object of libel. In reputation infringement, legal persons, groups and organizations can all be victims. For example, spreading false news, falsely claiming that a factory's products are inferior in quality, etc. The purpose is to bring down the other side by unfair competition. Even if this behavior causes serious consequences, it can only constitute a crime of damaging business reputation and commodity reputation, but not a crime of libel.

(3) Different subjective fault requirements. The subjective aspect of libel crime must be direct intention; The subjective fault of reputation infringement includes negligence. In addition, even if there are false elements in well-meaning accusations, exposures and criticisms, they should not be punished as libel.

Internet rumor itself is a kind of infringement, which obviously infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of others. Generally speaking, it belongs to the situation that criminals use illegal means to infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of others. At present, the phenomenon of spreading rumors and slanders on the Internet is quite common, which requires the judicial organs to identify its actual form before making a judgment.