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by lawyer zhou xiaoyun

on september 7, 2024, i published "hunan hengyang ferris wheel case: there is no social harm and it cannot be classified as illegal!", questioning the hengyang official punishment of "zhou's case of spreading rumors".

unexpectedly, on september 8, someone claiming to be a police officer from the zhengxiang branch of the hengyang public security bureau asked me to delete the post, but when i asked him to tell me his name and police number, he never responded again. is this a real police officer, or someone pretending to be one?

the cause of this incident was that on september 2, the public security department of zhengxiang district, hengyang city, announced five illegal online rumor-spreading behaviors through the hengyang daily. the first case, "zhou mou's case of spreading rumors," was as follows:

"on july 27, 2024, the offender zhou mou, in order to attract the attention of others and gain traffic, spread five similar spliced ​​false pictures related to the hengyang ferris wheel on an app, and wrote: we are also the first group of people to ride it. as a result, some netizens believed it to be true, which led to a large number of forwardings and spreads, causing certain adverse social impacts. zhou mou was administratively punished by the zhengxiang public security bureau in accordance with the law."

this is the incident that netizens have been discussing hotly: "the person who boasted about being the first to ride the hengyang ferris wheel was administratively punished."

i have pointed out in previous articles that whether bragging is illegal depends on whether it is socially harmful. in what way is the social harm reflected in the behavior of netizen zhou?

starting from noon on september 8, someone claiming to be a police officer from the zhengxiang branch of the hengyang public security bureau called and sent me text messages frequently, asking me to delete my posts. i asked him to tell me his name and police number many times, but he never responded.

this person said that there was nothing wrong with my article, and that it was the police's notice that didn't make it clear, which caused misunderstandings, and he hoped that i would delete it. but since there was nothing wrong with my article, why did he ask me to delete it?

the so-called misunderstanding refers to the fact that netizen zhou boasted that he was among the first group to ride the hengyang ferris wheel. however, on july 27, "the hengyang ferris wheel was just beginning construction (expected to start trial operation on september 20, 2024), causing some citizens who were unaware of the truth to go there together, and they came with high hopes but returned disappointed, causing adverse effects."

however, the two details, "the ferris wheel has not been built yet" and "the citizens who did not know the truth returned home disappointed", were not mentioned at all in the original text of the notice!

moreover, these two previously unpublished details do not affect the conclusion of my article at all, which is that bragging about being the first batch to ride a ferris wheel that has not yet been built does not warrant administrative punishment at all.

does this person have such a great influence? how many times has the original article been viewed? how many of the viewers went to the ferris wheel? how to prove that the citizens who did not know the truth at the scene went there after reading the netizen’s post? is there a legal causal relationship between the two? has this so-called adverse social impact reached the level of administrative punishment (warning, fine, administrative detention, etc.)?

there are more than one billion people in china. who dares to say that they have never boasted publicly? if such boasting is subject to administrative punishment, then does everyone have to be punished administratively?

what puzzles me even more is, is the person who called really a police officer?

possibility 1: he is indeed a police officer. but since he is handling this matter in his official capacity, why does he refuse to disclose his name and police number?

possibility 2: he is not a police officer, but after receiving the task of deleting the post, he pretended to be a police officer and asked for the post to be deleted. who is the mastermind behind him?

no matter which possibility it is, it is very strange. many internet celebrities have criticized this matter. but none of them received this call.

from september 20 to 22, the third hunan tourism development conference was held in hengyang, hunan, and the local government attached great importance to it. this is a good thing. but it is said that the local authorities are very sensitive about negative information about hengyang. so, are you really the ones who ordered the illegal deletion of posts?

if a person pretends to be a staff member of a state organ and defrauds other illegal benefits (such as status, honor, etc.) besides property, it constitutes the crime of fraud. the sentence is less than 3 years, and in serious cases, 3-10 years. if a person pretends to be a policeman and defrauds others, he shall be punished more severely.

if the party violates national regulations and deletes posts for profit, he will be convicted of illegal business operation according to the "interpretation of the supreme people's court and the supreme people's procuratorate on several issues concerning the application of law in handling criminal cases of defamation and other crimes using information networks" in 2013. if the circumstances are serious, he will be sentenced to less than 5 years, and if the circumstances are particularly serious, he will be sentenced to more than 5 years.

so, what is the truth?

lawyer zhou xiaoyun

written on september 19, 2024