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China News Service, July 28 (Xinhua) According to the WeChat account of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, on July 28, the Supreme People's Procuratorate released typical cases of procuratorial organs punishing the use of online violence to infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises. The cases involved crimes such as using the Internet to blackmail enterprises, damaging commercial reputation, and provoking trouble.Send a strong signal that online violence and crimes that harm enterprises will be severely punished in accordance with the law, and resolutely change the phenomenon where the cost of breaking the law is low and the cost of defending rights is high.

It is understood that in recent years, with the rapid development of the Internet, some lawless elements have used online public platforms to create and spread rumors involving enterprises, commit crimes such as extortion and damage to business reputation, and use cyberbullying to make illegal profits, seriously infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises. In 2023, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Punishing Cyber ​​Violence Crimes in accordance with the Law", which clearly requires the severe punishment of cyber violence crimes in accordance with the law, the establishment of a long-term governance mechanism, the fundamental reduction of cyber violence, and the creation of a clear cyberspace.

There are 5 typical cases in this batch, namely: the extortion case of Li and others, the extortion case of Wang and Zhang, the extortion case of Huang and Lv, the case of Li and others damaging business reputation and product reputation, and the case of Liu provoking disturbances. The cases show the practices and results of the procuratorial organs in safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises in cyberspace from the aspects of severely punishing cyber violence crimes that hurt enterprises in accordance with the law, cracking down on "cyber water army" and other related black industries in the whole chain, making every effort to recover the stolen money and losses, promoting enterprises to operate in accordance with the law, and promoting cyberspace governance. For example, in the extortion case of Huang and Lv, the procuratorial organs comprehensively considered the defendant's crime amount, subjective malice, social impact, etc., and recommended that the defendant Huang be sentenced to ten years in prison for extortion. The suggestion was adopted by the court, which formed a strong deterrent to the lawless elements who attempted to profit from cyber violence against enterprises. In the extortion case of Li and others, the procuratorial organs explained the law and reasoned, prompting the defendant to voluntarily plead guilty and accept punishment and return the full amount of the crime determined by the procuratorial organs to the victim unit, thus recovering the loss of the enterprise. In the case of Liu Moumou's provocation and disturbance, the procuratorate conducted its own supplementary investigation to consolidate the case evidence, and punished Liu Moumou in accordance with the law for spreading rumors on the Internet, cyberbullying to harm companies, and unscrupulous traffic, which seriously disrupted the public order in cyberspace. This clarified the procuratorate's clear position of severely punishing illegal and criminal acts of online rumors in accordance with the law.

The head of the Economic Crime Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate said that the release of this batch of typical cases isOn the one hand, it demonstrates the attitude and firm determination of the procuratorate to severely punish cyber violence and "keystrokes that hurt enterprises" crimes in accordance with the law., continue to send a strong signal to society that cyberspace is not a "lawless place", deepen the special action of "procuratorial protection of enterprises", and create a market-oriented, legal and international business environment;On the other hand, it also exposes the criminal means of using cyber violence to infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises, guides enterprises to safeguard their own rights and interests in accordance with the law, and at the same time guides the majority of netizens to enhance their awareness of the rule of law, use the Internet in accordance with the law, and jointly build a clear cyberspace.

The five typical cases are as follows:

Case 1: Extortion case involving Li and others

[Brief Facts] From October 2021 to April 2023, the defendant Li and his wife Liu A successively purchased snacks from major e-commerce platforms. They placed foreign objects such as insects, plastic, and hair in the packaging bags and resealed them to create the illusion that the food had serious quality problems and seek compensation from the merchants. If the merchants did not agree to compensate, the defendants threatened to expose or complain online. In this way, the defendants Li and Liu A extorted 206 times from 17 e-commerce companies, involving a total amount of more than 170,000 yuan. During this period, Liu B helped Liu A sign for express delivery, receive compensation from merchants, etc., with a total participation amount of 26,000 yuan and a profit of 500 yuan.

[Litigation Process] This case was filed for investigation by the Yijiang Branch of the Wuhu Public Security Bureau of Anhui Province. In October 2023, the Yijiang District Procuratorate filed a public prosecution against Li and Liu for extortion, and relatively non-prosecution against the minor Liu. In December of the same year, the Yijiang District Court sentenced Li to three years and six months in prison and a fine of 15,000 yuan for extortion; and sentenced Liu to three years in prison, suspended for three years, and fined 10,000 yuan. Neither defendant appealed, and the judgment has come into effect.

Case 2: Extortion case involving Wang and Zhang

[Brief Facts] The defendant Wang is a department manager of a catering company in Beijing. He owes a large amount of gambling debts due to his long-term addiction to online gambling. In March 2022, in order to repay his gambling debts, Wang, together with his brother-in-law Zhang, who was the chef of the catering company's store, took advantage of the restaurant staff's off-get off work hours to stage 4 false videos about the chaotic management and hygiene problems of the restaurant, including "using pots and meat floss boxes to wash mops and brooms" and "putting meatballs in the trash can in the dining bowl". On May 12 of the same year, Wang and others threatened to expose the video and contacted Liu, the person in charge of the catering company, to ask for 5 million yuan. In order to achieve his goal, Wang also hired a "water army" to post the video on a short video platform, with more than 1,000 likes. Later, Liu called the police in time, and the two attempted extortion.

[Litigation Process] This case was filed for investigation by the Chaoyang Branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau. On November 16, 2022, the Chaoyang District Procuratorate filed a public prosecution against Wang and Zhang for the crime of extortion. On December 23 of the same year, the Chaoyang District Court sentenced Wang to four years in prison and a fine of 20,000 yuan for the crime of extortion; and sentenced Zhang to three years in prison and a fine of 10,000 yuan. Neither defendant appealed, and the judgment has come into effect.

Case 3: Huang and Lv’s extortion case

[Brief Facts] From April 2017 to May 2023, the defendants Huang and Han (handled in another case) and others used self-media platforms such as the "Anti-MLM" WeChat public account to publish and reprint fabricated and pieced-together articles for illegal profit, spreading false negative news that 21 small and micro private enterprises in many parts of the country were engaged in MLM activities, which seriously affected the normal production and operation activities of the enterprises. The defendant Huang contacted the enterprises to ask for money, or when the victim enterprises contacted him to delete the posts, he refused to delete the posts if they did not pay a specified amount of fees and further hyped negative information to ask for money, making illegal profits totaling more than 550,000 yuan. During this period, Huang's wife Lv knew that Huang had committed the above-mentioned acts, but still provided her personal account to help Huang collect 120,000 yuan.

[Litigation process] This case was filed for investigation by the Public Security Bureau of Fuling District, Chongqing. On February 26, 2024, the Fuling District Procuratorate filed a public prosecution against Huang and Lv for extortion. On March 11 of the same year, the Fuling District Court sentenced Huang to ten years in prison and a fine of 50,000 yuan for extortion, and sentenced Lv to two years in prison, suspended for two years and six months, and a fine of 5,000 yuan. Huang was ordered to pay back the victim unit for economic losses of 436,000 yuan, and Huang and Lv were ordered to jointly pay back the victim unit for economic losses of 120,000 yuan. Neither of the two defendants appealed, and the judgment has come into effect.

Case 4: Li et al. damaged business reputation and product reputation

[Brief Facts] From October to November 2020, Li, as the deputy director of the marketing department of T Company, arranged for Wang to contact Hu's company and wrote more than 20 false negative articles about H Company's products using inferior accessories. After review by Li and Wang, they were published on the Internet through self-media. After the articles were published, Li arranged for Wang to contact others to write negative comments. After review by Wang and others, he organized "online water army" to publish them and maintained popularity through mutual comments and likes.

During the "Double 11" period in 2020, relevant self-media accounts published 135 false negative articles on multiple online platforms, with a total reading volume of more than 1 million. Consumers were misled by the above false articles and returned a large number of products, resulting in direct economic losses of 651,000 yuan for dealers in many locations of H Company. During the same period, the stock price of H Company fell by 14.54%.

[Litigation process] This case was filed for investigation by the Qingdao Public Security Bureau of Shandong Province. On December 11, 2023, the Shinan District Procuratorate filed a public prosecution against Li, Wang, and Hu for the crime of damaging business reputation and product reputation. In February 2024, the Shinan District Court sentenced Li to one year and three months in prison, suspended for one year and six months, and fined him 80,000 yuan for the crime of damaging business reputation and product reputation; Wang and Hu were both sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for one year and three months, and fined 50,000 yuan. None of the defendants appealed, and the judgment has come into effect.

Case 5: Liu Moumou’s case of provoking trouble

[Brief case] In November 2021, a TV series produced by H Film and Television Company was broadcast on the Internet platform. The scene in which the white cat was poisoned to death in the play triggered a discussion among netizens about whether the animal actor "was really dead". In order to gain popularity and attention on the Internet, the defendant Liu Moumou forged his chat records with the crew members, and pretended to be a member of the crew in the chat records, saying that the cat had been thrown to death and disposed of. Liu Moumou took the initiative to contact a certain Internet celebrity with more than 4 million fans and provided him with forged chat records. Later, the celebrity posted information on the Internet containing the confirmed death of the cat. The information triggered 6.86 million netizens to read, more than 10,000 people to forward, and more than 4,000 people to comment. Topics related to the crew's abuse of cats continued to be hotly discussed on the Internet platform, causing huge economic losses and adverse effects to H Film and Television Company, and causing panic to some film and television practitioners. After verification, the white cat used in the filming is still alive and well.

[Litigation process] This case was filed for investigation by the Dongyang City Public Security Bureau of Zhejiang Province. On March 23, 2022, the Dongyang City Procuratorate filed a public prosecution against Liu Moumou for the crime of provoking disturbances. On May 25 of the same year, the Dongyang City Court sentenced Liu Moumou to seven months in prison for the crime of provoking disturbances. The defendant did not appeal and the judgment has come into effect. (China News Service APP)