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China: Blacklisting netizens

Categories: China, Harassment

Shanghai government has blacklisted 80 netizens and exposed their user names and IPs on the Expose Channel of Shanghai Internet Social Credit Investigation Web. Most of the listed netizens are charged with offenses such as “spreading rumor” and “disturbing social and public order”.

Informations exposed in the website include: 1. user names; 2. the name of the websites or social media sites where they have committed their offenses; 3. nature of their offenses; 4. the exact time of their offensive acts; 5. I.P information; 6. location of their I.Ps.

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According to the Beijing Youth Daily's report on November 2, the expose channel is jointly run by the Shanghai Internet Security Police and Shanghai information security management association. The data of the black list were collected between April 23, 2007 to October 6, 2010.

Most of the offenses are minor ones, such as spreading vulgar pictures and rumors. In some cases, the netizens have just received verbal warning from the internet security police and have never been put on trial. Examples quoted in infzm.com are:

1. User Han Naichuan published a post about “the inside secrets about the university entrance examination” in RenRen website, he had expressed remorse after police warning.

2. User “yellow-cas” stated online that he wanted to organize a model aircraft gathering for flying model planes together during the Shanghai EXPO. He had also expressed remorse after police warning.

3. User zzj00, discontented about traffic police's fine, stated online that he wanted to follow Yang Jia's example (the famous police killer), he had expressed remorse after police warning.

4. User 357156568, having layoff by 2 employers and broken, he said he had prepared to blow up the EXP. He was put under administrative detention.

Some netizens said that the exposure of private data is not only a violation of individual's privacy but also a threat of social labeling and public insult.