Jiangsu Provincial Public Security Department reported three typical cases of spreading rumors and confusing people yesterday.
The rise of mobile phone short messages and the Internet not only provides convenience for people to exchange ideas and information, but also becomes the carrier of many rumors. According to statistics, since the beginning of this year, the province’s public security organs have investigated and dealt with 64 cases of fabricating lies on the Internet and publishing false and insulting illegal information, and given public security punishment or admonition to 60 illegal suspects according to law. Yesterday (20th), the spokesperson’s office of Jiangsu Provincial Public Security Bureau informed the media of three typical cases.
Rumor 1: "An AIDS group deliberately picks their teeth and bleeds in restaurants."
"Don’t use toothpicks in restaurants in the near future. Recently, an AIDS group used toothpicks to pick their teeth in restaurants around the country and put them back in the toothpick box after bleeding, maliciously infecting AIDS! Please be careful! "
This is a piece of information that was verified as pure fabrication by the public security organs in other provinces as early as mid-May. Including the public security organs of our province, they have promptly refuted rumors, hoping that people will not panic unnecessarily.
The police found that since July 11, this short message has actually started to circulate in our province, and the sending volume has suddenly increased, and people all over the country have reported receiving this short message. For a time, it caused a lot of panic in society. After careful investigation by the police, the originator in our province is a Du surnamed owner with the number of 1361611 ×××××. Du Mou does business in Sichuan all the year round. Recently, the public security organs arrested Du Mou in Ya ‘an, Sichuan, and also arrested Cao Mou who used the same mobile phone to send text messages with the same content. The two were detained by the public security organs according to law.
After review, the two confessed that after receiving this short message in early July, out of curiosity, they forwarded it to relatives and friends in large quantities, and sent more than 200 short messages with the same content from July 11 to 14 alone.
Proverb 2 "Jingjiang was sure that Tsinghua was chased to death by the traffic police"
At 7 o’clock on the evening of July 31st, netizen "Honest Monk" posted a post entitled "Jingjiang-Tsinghua Enrolled Students Being Chased to Death by Traffic Police" on the BBS forum of Taizhou "Too Boring" website, saying that the father and son went out on a motorcycle together and were inspected by traffic police on the way. Because he didn’t wear a helmet, he was stopped by the traffic police and fined. The father who drove the motorcycle ignored it and rushed over. The traffic police chased after him, causing the motorcycle to get out of control too quickly, and the son sitting behind was killed. It’s a pity that my son has been admitted to Tsinghua University. When the news reached home, the child’s mother went insane on the spot.
As soon as this post came out, it immediately caused "total anger" on the Internet. At the same time, it also attracted great attention from the leaders of the provincial public security department, and asked Jingjiang Public Security Bureau to find out the situation immediately. According to the investigation by Jingjiang Municipal Public Security Bureau, the netizen Ju, who goes by the pseudonym "Honest Monk", is 29 years old and is an electrician in a certain unit. On the evening of the 31st, after hearing this false story, Jumou not only did not verify it, but fabricated this appalling "news" according to his imagination and published it online. The police visited and investigated the six students admitted by Jingjiang to Tsinghua University this year, and found no traffic accidents.
On August 3rd, Jingjiang Internet Management Leading Group Office held a press conference to inform the media of the truth. The public security organs also announced the detention of the dishonest "honest monk" Ju.
Rumor 3: "There will be a shooting on campus, and the death toll will exceed that of Florida in the United States."
On April 18th, a post appeared in xici’s "Jiangsu City Forum" column, which was really frightening. The post titled "Shooting in the Campus of Suzhou ××× Middle School" said: "(Shooting) will happen soon, although it is not the worst shooting incident in China, the death toll will definitely exceed that of Florida in the United States." The netizen who posted this post is called "Hamlet AAA".
The Provincial Public Security Department and Suzhou Public Security Bureau immediately organized an investigation. A few hours later, Suzhou police arrested the poster Xu in a residential area in Canglang District, Suzhou. 27-year-old Xu, unemployed, used to be an English teacher in Suzhou XX Middle School. Xu confessed that because he had a holiday with the school leaders when he was working in XX Middle School, he thought that the school leaders and teachers crowded him out, which made him unable to work normally. In order to vent their dissatisfaction, two posts were published in the same column of the same website on April 12 and April 18, respectively, namely, "Middle School Students in Suzhou have a Serious Violence Tendency" and "Shooting in the Campus of Suzhou XX Middle School", which maliciously vilified Suzhou XX Middle School and fictional shooting incidents, and admitted that the contents of the two posts were pure fiction.
Xia Cunxi, a spokesman for the Provincial Public Security Department, revealed at the press conference that Jiangsu public security organs will set up a unified logo of "110 alarm booth" and "virtual police" icons in the main website forums in the province in the near future, which will be publicly managed online according to law, accept reports of illegal crimes by netizens, and promptly discover and resolutely crack down on all kinds of online illegal and criminal activities. (Correspondent Shen Gongxuan, reporter Zhu Yulei)
■ Do not believe in rumors after editing.
"Three people make a tiger" and "spreading rumors with false information" are idioms used by the ancients to describe the spread form and harm of rumors. In fact, today, with the increasingly developed inquiry system, every individual can borrow modern communication tools such as mobile phone short messages and the Internet, and it is easy to win the gold.
In some rumors’ self-reports, "boredom", "venting" and "revenge" are their initial motives for causing this abnormal public opinion. However, public opinion is powerful, and the greater the spread and the more false elements, the more destructive it will be to others and even society. When it develops to the extent that it interferes with people’s normal life and even affects the harmony and stability of society, rumors are no longer irrelevant "just talking" and become out-and-out illegal acts.
"Rumors stop at wisdom" is the way to curb the spread of rumors under the condition of oral communication. In modern society, stopping rumors depends more on citizens’ sense of responsibility and legal system. On the one hand, for unconfirmed or difficult-to-confirm information that may have a significant impact at the same time, everyone should ask why, think independently, don’t make a fuss, and don’t see the wind as rain. Do not spread rumors, do not believe rumors, and do not spread rumors. On the other hand, although the network is virtual, the responsibility goes hand in hand and is real. In this briefing, the police repeatedly stressed that both mobile phone users and netizens should be cautious, and their words and deeds should be responsible for the law, society and individuals. The network is both virtual and realistic. Those who irresponsibly fabricate and spread rumors, disrupt social order, affect social stability and even bring social panic will be severely punished according to law. Zhu xinlei
Editor: Li Xingcun