Legal-system upgrade

The case has triggered hot discussion among legal scholars about how to protect individual rights in cyberspace.

Sun Daocui, a law professor at China University of Political Science and Law, told Procuratorial Daily that the law should adapt and evolve when applied to online situations, which sometimes are more complicated than the traditional scenarios.

The good news is that authorities have been working to curb the pervasiveness of rumors and falsehoods online.

A judicial interpretation released by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate in 2013 defines the criteria for convicting and sentencing offenders who spread rumors online that defame, blackmail or provoke.

Internet users who concoct or edit information that damages an individual's or an organization's reputation and share it, either directly or through others, can be charged with libel, a criminal offense. They will face up to three years in prison if their posts are viewed 5,000 times or forwarded 500 times, under the judicial interpretation.

Internet users whose posts have a significant negative effect on victims or their families, such as mental illness, will be investigated as a "serious case", the interpretation states, as will those who reoffend within two years.

The Civil Code of China, which took effect on Jan 1, has detailed stipulations on protecting personal information, privacy and reputation.

Although the law is catching up, Zheng says that libel-proof plaintiffs are rare in today's age, because it is difficult to collect effective evidence－online posts can be easily removed and tracing the IP address and the person behind said posts can be difficult.

After the case, there has been a surge in the number of people coming to Zheng seeking counsel about their experiences related to cyber libel. She suggests that once they encounter such internet defamation, people should call the police immediately, which is the best way to ensure evidence collection if a libel claim needs to be filed.

A report by the China Federation of Internet Societies published in December shows that nearly 70 percent of users in the sample research have viewed rumors that have been spread online.

For lawyer Zheng, there are two sides to every coin, and it is the same for every post on the internet.

"Everyone should think independently and be responsible before posting or reposting online," Zheng says.