What is the responsibility of spreading rumors in WeChat circle of friends or Weibo?

Article 25 of the Law on Public Security Administration Punishment, which came into effect on March 1 2006, stipulates: "Whoever spreads rumors, falsely reports dangerous situations, epidemic situations or police situations or intentionally disturbs public order by other means shall be detained for more than five days and less than ten days, and may also be fined less than 500 yuan; If the circumstances are minor, they shall be detained for less than five days or fined less than 500 yuan. "

The Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in Handling Criminal Cases such as Defamation by Information Network, which came into effect on September 13, 2003, stipulates that "if the same defamatory information is actually clicked, viewed more than 5000 times and forwarded more than 500 times", it should be considered as defamatory behavior "if the circumstances are serious?" , thus setting a very strict quantitative conviction standard for libel.

In other words, spreading defamatory news on WeChat, Weibo or other social software, when the number of hits and reposts exceeds a certain number, will be deemed as libel. According to Article 246 of China's Criminal Law, whoever publicly insults others by violence or other means or fabricates facts to slander others, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, public surveillance or deprivation of political rights. The crimes mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall be dealt with only if they are told, except those that seriously endanger social order and national interests.

The Criminal Law Amendment (IX), which came into effect on1October 201in 2005, added a paragraph to Article 29 1 of the current criminal law: "Fabricating false dangers, epidemics, disasters and warnings, spreading them on information networks or other media, or knowing that they are the above false information. Those who cause serious consequences shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years. "

Presumably, many people don't have an intuitive concept about it by virtue of the original law. The following examples will help you understand the main contents of this new law.

Example: In order to increase the number of clicks on WeChat official account, a netizen deliberately fabricated the news that many people were infected with H7N9 avian influenza and spread it in WeChat circle of friends, causing people in this area to panic and affecting their daily life and work.

As can be seen from the above examples, in order to seek personal interests, the netizen fabricated false news about many people infected with H7N9 avian influenza deaths, which is in line with the legal provisions of "fabricating false dangers, epidemics, disasters and warnings" and then spreading it on WeChat, which is in line with the requirements of "spreading on information networks or other media". These two behaviors already have the subjective conditions to constitute a crime. In addition, the news they spread caused panic among the people in this area, which affected their daily life and work and met the requirement of "seriously disturbing social order". The netizen has constituted a crime and will be punished accordingly.

While cracking down on all kinds of online rumors, the police hope that the majority of netizens will be socially responsible citizens, enhance their self-discipline and legal awareness, standardize their online words and deeds, abide by various laws and regulations, and create a harmonious, civilized and clear online environment for the society. ?