500 Retweets Will Now Get You Three Years in Prison in China
China has stepped up its crackdown on online rumors by issuing [zh] a judicial framework for prosecuting offenders. Internet users who share false information that is defamatory or harms the national interest face up to three years in prison if their posts are viewed 5,000 times or forwarded 500 times, according to a judicial interpretation released on September 9, 2013.
The new guideline, issued by the Supreme People's Court, defines the criteria for convicting and sentencing offenders. This includes causing a mass incident, disturbing public order, inciting ethnic and religious conflicts, and damaging the state's image.
According to Xinhua news, Shen Yang, a professor from Wuhan University specializing in microblogging cases, welcomed the judicial interpretation, saying it will help clean up the Internet.
Over the past month, China has detained a number of suspects. The move is seen as part of President Xi Jinping's new policy of online control. In July 2013, singer Wu Hongfei was detained after allegedly threatening to bomb a government building on Sina Weibo. Liu Hu, a Chinese journalist, was also detained by Beijing police in August for fabrication and dissemination of rumors online.
Given how easy it is to manipulate social media activity, people will need to be very careful about what they post, as anyone with a grudge or an agenda could quickly push a target's message over those thresholds. Many netizens expressed anger towards the new policy.
China's CCTV reported that people would face defamation charges if the online rumors they create are viewed by at least 5,000 Internet users or retweeted 500 times.
“Dunan Guandian“ [zh] wrote:
一个人的同一个行为，他是不是个罪犯，决定权掌握在其他网民手中，别人不转他就是良民，别人转多了他就是个罪犯。
Whether someone has committed a crime is in the hands of other netizens. If others don't retweet, he's a good citizen, if others retweet, he has committed a crime.
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