"Fanquan" is a group formed spontaneously by fans in pursuit of people or things they like together. The "rice circle" has also had a positive impact on the real society: the crowdfunding donation of the "rice circle" in public welfare activities can not only help the needy groups, but also transmit positive energy; The rational creative support behavior of "rice circle" is also helpful to promote the development of cultural industry. However, with the disorderly growth of "rice circles", many chaotic phenomena have emerged, causing serious social harm. In order to lay a solid ideological foundation and strengthen the guidance of public opinion, it is necessary to improve and optimize relevant laws in time, correct the chaos of "rice circles" according to law, and strengthen the governance efficiency of "rice circles".
1. Control and evaluation manipulate public opinion space, and legal supervision is blind.
One of the chaotic phenomena of "rice circle" is comment control, which takes two forms: one is that fans abuse the reporting mechanism. Some fans classify the normal comments of ordinary netizens as malicious black comments. Once they find negative voices or dissident voices involving idol names, abbreviations and appellations, they advise publishers to modify or delete them, or incite fan groups to complain and report. The second is that fans screen homogeneous information. The screen-brushing scenes mainly include: the control and evaluation team makes promotional materials, and fans consciously forward them in scale to expand the popularity of idols; Screen idol information in the film and television drama review area, brand live broadcast room, etc. to show idol influence; When idols have negative public opinion events, fans will defend them in a unified way, or release massive positive content to suppress negative hot search.
Although the above phenomenon does not touch the legal red line, it violates the moral bottom line and seriously affects the orderly development of online public opinion. The "rice circle" abuses the reporting mechanism, making the governance tool a means for fans to take revenge. At the same time, the homogeneous content of "rice circle" will artificially concoct hot spots, which will affect the orderly spread of the network, and will also encourage fans to constantly fight for help and irrational consumption in order to maintain the popularity, and will also cause fans to justify the disqualification of idols regardless of right and wrong, and even cover up and beautify the illegal and criminal acts of idols. Recently, the Central Network Information Office issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Governance of the Chaos in the "Rice Circle" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), proposing to continue to dissolve the fan communities and groups with the theme of control. The "Notice" has made great efforts to rectify the harm caused by the large-scale control and evaluation of common control and evaluation groups, but in addition to communities and groups, the harm caused by spontaneous control and evaluation by fans should be paid attention to.
2. Cyber violence has a wide range of hazards, and public and private affairs should be paid equal attention to as a whole.
The second phenomenon of "rice circle" chaos is cyber violence, which is commonly manifested as: uglification, abuse, derogatory and threatening others; Compile and spread rumors; Insulting the image of others by making pictures and other means; Human flesh searches and exposes other people’s address, unit, certificate number and other private information; Leaking, buying and selling the star’s residence, itinerary and traffic information, etc.; Tracking, voyeuristic, and secretly photographing stars, publishing, selling and exhibiting their secretly photographed images without the consent of the stars; Invade the star’s private residence and harass the star by telephone, text message and email.
The "Notice" clearly requires all platforms to promptly discover and clean up all kinds of harmful information such as tearing and swearing, pulling and stepping on wars, rumors and attacks by fans in the "rice circle", and strictly deal with illegal and illegal accounts. Although titles are a punishment measure, cyber violence should be punished more according to different actors and circumstances.
In the protection of personal rights and interests: First of all, according to the provisions of the Civil Code, publishing insulting and defamatory remarks, which substantially reduces the social evaluation of others, constitutes a reputation infringement. If the circumstances are serious, according to the provisions of the criminal law, it constitutes the crime of insult and libel. Secondly, the above-mentioned acts of making pictures, taking pictures and publishing constitute portrait infringement. Finally, according to the provisions of the Civil Code, human flesh search, information disclosure and other acts illegally expose private information that individuals do not want to be known to others, tracking and invading disturb the rational and private space of other characters, and information harassment disturbs the peace of life of others, all of which constitute privacy infringement.
In terms of social security, insults, slanders, intimidation and other acts that endanger public order shall be punished accordingly in accordance with the provisions of the Public Security Administration Punishment Law. If the circumstances are serious, according to 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 of Defamation by Information Network, the offender shall be convicted and punished for the crime of stirring up trouble. Whoever fabricates false information and causes serious public disorder shall be convicted and punished for the crime of stirring up trouble in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Law. If the act of buying or selling other people’s information reaches the serious standard, it shall be punished as the crime of infringing citizens’ personal information.
3. Improper fund-raising has hidden risks, and regulatory measures need to be strengthened.
The third chaos of "rice circle" is fan fund-raising, that is, fan fund-raising activities organized by individual fans, support clubs and other groups or stars and their studios for playing lists, voting, buying gifts and supporting materials, and holding offline publicity activities. There are serious legal risks in fan fund-raising, including opaque fund operation, unknown whereabouts of the money raised, illegal occupation by sponsors, etc.
The "Notice" stipulates that all platforms should promptly discover and clean up all kinds of illegal fund-raising information; For websites and platforms that focus on problems, fail to perform their duties effectively, and induce minors to participate in fund-raising for aid, they shall be punished according to laws and regulations; Continue to investigate and dispose of overseas websites that provide voting and fundraising. For the fund-raising behavior without platform participation and organized and managed by fans spontaneously, the legal problems existing in it can be regulated from the civil and criminal perspectives.
At present, the academic circles have not unified the legal nature of fan fund-raising. One view is that fan fund-raising is a commission relationship, and usually it is a free commission. As the trustee, the sponsor shall report to the participant (the principal) the purpose of fund-raising, the details of income and expenditure, and the handling of assistance affairs, etc. According to the provisions of the Civil Code, if the trustee causes losses to the principal due to intentional or gross negligence, the principal may request compensation for the losses; If the trustee exceeds his authority and causes losses to the principal, he shall compensate for the losses. Another view is that fan fund-raising is a civil gift relationship, and it is often a gift with obligations. According to the provisions of the civil code, when the sponsor fails to fulfill the obligation of supporting, the participants have the right to cancel the gift and request the return of the property. According to the criminal law, improper fund-raising may also constitute fraud and embezzlement. First, the fund-raising promoters deliberately fabricated the facts of aid, deceived fans to pay the aid fees, and illegally possessed the proceeds to raise funds, which constituted the crime of fraud. Second, the fund-raising promoters took the money entrusted by other fans for their own use and did not use it for support, and reached the standard of a large amount. After other fans found it, they still refused to return it, which constituted the crime of illegal embezzlement. However, the above laws do not regulate the process, frequency, amount, participants and managers of fund-raising.
4. Offline activities disrupt public order and increase prevention and control efforts.
The fourth chaos of "rice circle" is disturbing public order, which is manifested in three aspects: first, a large number of fans gather and crowd in public places such as shopping malls and airports to watch the stars, which will not only interfere with the normal operation of public areas, but also destroy public facilities and cause stampede injuries due to disorderly crowding. Second, fans extend cyber violence to offline, contain, harass and attack others, endanger their personal safety and threaten social order. Third, under the influence of group infection, fans turn online irrational emotions into offline collective actions, which increases the difficulty of realistic governance and intensifies social risks. For example, famous artists are detained on suspicion of committing crimes, and some emotional fans gather in front of the police station to speak for them.
In this regard, relevant departments should strengthen governance, take both online and offline measures, strengthen guidance and prevention, and not only supervise improper online speech in real time, but also rectify illegal gathering behavior according to law. According to the provisions of the Public Security Administration Punishment Law, the above-mentioned acts involve disturbing the order of stations, ports, docks, airports, shopping malls, parks, exhibition halls or other public places, and they are given a warning or a fine of less than 200 yuan; If the circumstances are serious, they shall be detained for more than five days and less than ten days, and may also be fined up to five hundred yuan. According to the criminal law, fans have the following behaviors: beating others at will, and the circumstances are bad; Chasing, intercepting and insulting others, with bad circumstances; Making trouble in public places, causing serious disorder in public places, etc., constitutes the crime of stirring up trouble.
5. Build a long-term governance mechanism to create a clear cyberspace.
In order to effectively prevent the chaos of "rice circle" from eroding the mainstream ideology, infiltrating erroneous thoughts and threatening social security, relevant departments should sum up practical experience and challenges and optimize rectification measures on the basis of governance according to law.
First, build a long-term governance mechanism. "Rice circle" is becoming a social phenomenon day by day, and its guidance and regulation should become a normal work. At present, the governance practice faces challenges: First, there is a lack of complete regulatory rules, and special activities take temporary solutions instead of permanent solutions. Once the activities are over, similar chaos may come back. Second, there is a lack of unified management standards, and the implementation effect is difficult to evaluate. In this regard, relevant departments should not only clarify the scope of powers and responsibilities of all parties according to law, but also link platforms, celebrities and their affiliated enterprises and ordinary citizens, build a multi-party governance grid, strengthen daily supervision, improve inspection and assessment standards, and urge the platform to set up a unified management system to enhance its self-inspection ability.
Secondly, it is necessary to optimize the existing remediation rules. The existing governance basis for fans’ comment behavior is mainly the Notice issued by the Central Network Information Office. The "Notice" requires the platform to vigorously disband the fan communities and groups with the theme of control and evaluation, and has achieved remarkable results since its implementation. However, only cleaning up the control and evaluation groups may not only ignore the spontaneous screen-brushing behavior of fans, but also lack the regulation of malicious reporting and evaluation. In order to further strengthen the prevention and control in advance, the specific rules need to be optimized and improved.
Finally, the rule of law and the rule of virtue should be combined to give play to the leading power of morality. The governance of "rice circle" should not only be guaranteed by punitive provisions, but also be based on moral concepts. Stimulate the positive energy of "rice circle" and correct the wrong direction of "rice circle" As for the platform, the law should not only stipulate its regulatory responsibilities, but also emphasize its publicity obligations. The platform should actively recommend outstanding cultural works and encourage fans to pay attention to the pioneering deeds of moral models in various fields. In terms of stars and their affiliated companies, relevant departments should introduce norms. First, they should regulate the words and deeds of stars, play their role as role models, and drive fans to participate in public welfare; Second, we must clarify the management obligations, urge them to correct the improper behavior of the "rice circle", and supervise the fund-raising procedures and flow. At the school and family level, teenagers should be guided to "button up the first button in life", educate the right and wrong, and lead the concept of healthy idolize. (Author: Wang Tianzheng, a researcher at Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought Research Center, the supreme leader of Beijing, and a professor at China University of Political Science and Law; Cui Yao, Ph.D. student, China University of Political Science and Law)
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