Millions of fans internet celebrity’s “textbook-like rights protection” after being falsely accused of pornography. Can blockchain solve the problem of online violence?

Millions of fans of an internet celebrity seek justice after false accusations of pornography. Can blockchain combat online violence?

Source: Chao News

Recently, the popular internet celebrity Xiaoxue, who has millions of followers on Douyin, was maliciously accused of spreading false information. The false information has spread throughout the internet. On July 11th, Xiaoxue spoke out about the matter, stating that she had sued the person responsible and would hold them accountable through legal means.

In the video, Xiaoxue talked about her experience reporting, collecting evidence, and preserving evidence after being falsely accused. Xiaoxue mentioned that when collecting evidence, she spent 12 yuan to join a group chat, where she found that someone was spreading rumors and profiting from them. To this end, she used “blockchain evidence collection” to preserve the false evidence.

Internet violence has always been a difficult problem in internet governance, and evidence collection has become the biggest pain point. On July 13th, several senior lawyers said in an interview with reporters that “blockchain evidence collection” is an innovative approach to governing internet violence. It can provide protection for victims’ subsequent rights protection actions and will help solve the pain point of evidence collection in internet violence rights protection.

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Xiaoxue’s response video screenshot

A popular internet celebrity with millions of followers bravely safeguards her rights after being falsely accused of spreading false information

Xiaoxue’s husband, Zhang Baiqiao, is a top internet celebrity with millions of followers on Douyin. The couple is loved by netizens for sharing humorous videos of their daily life. The incident began to ferment on July 9th. In the video comment section of Zhang Baiqiao’s account, there suddenly appeared a large number of comments such as “looking for gossip,” “already seen,” and “is that really you,” implying “Xiaoxue’s indecent photos,” and inducing netizens to join the “gossip group chat” for a fee.

Xiaoxue said that at first, she did not realize the seriousness of the problem, but later she gradually discovered that the target seemed to be herself. “Even my family, colleagues, and friends came to me and asked if that person was me. At this point, I realized that I might have been falsely accused by someone.”

Xiaoxue then began to investigate the matter. She found that the incident was caused by a girl who uploaded indecent photos of herself. Because the girl’s appearance was too similar to Xiaoxue’s, some people with malicious intent began to spread rumors and promote them, even using them to make a profit.

On July 11th, Xiaoxue reported the issue of being falsely accused to the police, and at the same time, contacted a professional lawyer to preserve relevant evidence information. Xiaoxue said that she paid 12 yuan to enter the so-called “eating melon group” to obtain evidence, and passively watched the “black material”. Xiaoxue said that she did not know the female protagonist in the incident, nor did she want to investigate the responsibility of the girl, “because she, like me, is a victim, and no woman should be used as a tool and topic to satisfy private desires.”

Xiaoxue mentioned that in the process of collecting evidence, she used the “blockchain evidence preservation” method to preserve the false evidence. She has kept the personal accounts and marketing agencies that have insulted and attacked her in private messages, and has obtained personal information from those who have set their accounts to private through reasonable and legal procedures. She has also notarized them, “Your actions cannot be deleted. I will sue and hold you responsible in other places.” Xiaoxue said.

According to a report by Red Star News on July 13th, Xiaoxue said that the rights protection has now progressed to the next step, and the progress is not convenient to disclose. So far, 22 accounts and organizations that have profited from this have been found, and there are about 300 people who have spread rumors in the comment area and clearly profited. “The rights protection has been handed over to the lawyer for processing, and it is estimated that there will be results in about a year.”

Xiaoxue’s receipt of the case

“Textbook-style” rights protection, can ordinary people replicate it?

Xiaoxue’s step-by-step actions against false accusations and online violence have been supported by netizens and called “textbook-style” rights protection. In response to this, Xiaoxue said that this statement is not just for herself, but also to tell all girls not to be afraid when encountering similar things, and to take up legal weapons to protect themselves.

Xiaoxue’s use of the “blockchain evidence collection” method in the incident has also entered the public eye. What exactly is “blockchain evidence collection”?

On July 13th, Mao Ying, a lawyer at Zhejiang Jindao Law Firm, said in an interview with reporters that the concept of blockchain evidence is still relatively unfamiliar to many people, but in fact, as early as 2018, Article 11 of the “Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Trial of Cases by Internet Courts” had made it clear that electronic data submitted by parties can be confirmed by electronic signatures, trusted time stamps, hash value verification, blockchain and other technical means of evidence collection, fixation and anti-tampering, or certification by electronic evidence preservation platforms to prove their authenticity, the Internet court shall confirm it.

“In other words, the legal status of blockchain evidence has long been recognized by the law. The evidence obtained through blockchain technology is essentially electronic evidence, but it is a new type of electronic evidence collected and fixed by the parties through a judicial blockchain platform or a third-party blockchain platform established by other organizations.”

So can ordinary people replicate Xiaoxue’s rights protection experience? Lawyer Mao Ying said that blockchain evidence is only a form of evidence and is no different from other evidence. “There is no need to deliberately ‘elevate’ it, and ordinary people can easily use blockchain technology for evidence collection.”

Taking the Hangzhou Internet Court as an example, it launched the first electronic evidence judicial blockchain in the country as early as 2018. Opening the “third-party deposit certificate” in the evidence platform, you can see that the evidence category includes “network shopping evidence”, “infringement of civil rights evidence”, “financial loan evidence”, etc. Users can use this electronic evidence platform to form blockchain evidence and submit litigation.

Related evidence screenshot

“Blockchain evidence collection” may promote the solution to online violence

The reporter noticed that in recent years, incidents of online violence have occurred frequently. The reason is mostly that it is difficult to safeguard rights through online violence and the cost of behavior is low, which has caused some netizens to hold a mentality of “the law does not blame the public” and use anonymous accounts as a shield to wantonly trample on the legitimate rights and interests of others.

On June 9th this year, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security announced the “Guiding Opinions on Punishing Illegal and Criminal Acts of Network Violence in Accordance with the Law (Consultation Draft)” to the public for comments, indicating that they will punish illegal and criminal acts of network violence in accordance with the law. The position.

Lawyer Mao Ying introduced that the primary reason why it is difficult to collect evidence in online violence cases is that the subject of the behavior is difficult to identify. In order to solve this problem, the consultation draft clearly stipulates that when the victim files a private prosecution for network insult or defamation and the people’s court finds it difficult for the victim to provide evidence after review, it can request the public security organ to provide assistance.

At the same time, Lawyer Mao Ying believes that in order to strengthen the governance of online violence, it is also necessary to further strengthen the platform’s responsibility and give full play to the role of the first responsible person for platform information content management. If infringement is found, the platform should fulfill its information network security management obligations in accordance with the law, delete posts and ban accounts in a timely manner, and actively cooperate with the victim to report to the public security organ to resist online violence and purify the network environment.

As infringement belongs to the civil category, and insult and defamation crimes in most cases belong to criminal self-prosecution cases, victims need to provide evidence such as the basic information of the infringer, the causal relationship between the infringement facts and results, etc. In fact, victims are difficult to obtain the above evidence on their own, which makes it extremely difficult to protect their rights against cyber violence.

“Blockchain technology has the characteristics of traceability and full-process traceability, which plays a good role in stabilizing and strengthening the correlation of electronic evidence.” Lawyer Mao Ying said that specifically, when cyber violence incidents occur, victims can use blockchain technology for evidence collection for the first time, authenticate the real identity information of the depositor, and make continuous records of the source and circulation process of the data, which enables victims to timely fix the entire process of “I” being subjected to “what” cyber violence behavior by “who” in the Internet environment, and provide guarantees for subsequent rights protection actions.

Shao Bin, honorary director of Shanghai Bohe Hanshang (Hangzhou) Law Firm, told reporters that for people who have been subjected to cyber violence and intend to preserve evidence through blockchain, they must first ensure that the platform for storing evidence is legal and impartial. Under this premise, if the victim directly uses the relevant procedures to retrieve and use “blockchain evidence”, the evidential effectiveness will be stronger than other types of evidence.

“The difficulty for victims of cyber violence to protect their rights and collect evidence has always been a difficult point, because network information updates very quickly, and many data will be deleted or overwritten if they are not saved in time, which makes it difficult to collect them afterwards. If there is a platform that can provide some network evidence preservation for these victims of cyber violence, and these evidences have credibility and demonstrability, from a legal perspective, it is of great significance.” Shao Bin said that the practice of preserving “blockchain evidence” is not yet popular, but he believes that this is an innovation that will help solve the pain points of cyber violence protection and evidence collection.

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