http://www.latimes.com/world/
This September in China, a new law about spreading rumors on the internet has taken place in light of recent events. A 16 year old middle school student, Yang, known as Brother Hui, posted rumors about a police case of a recent 'death accident' on his personal social media network, QQ, where presumably, he thought that only a private network of his friends would witness. However, his rumored statements questioning the police's actions have gone against the societal grain as slander, gaining the attention of hundreds of viewers who gathered at the scene of the death and chanted slogans, totally disrupting social order and bringing in the police to investigate. In a ruling on September 10th this year, the Chinese Supreme Court has declared that online rumor - spreading would be considered illegal and punishable if a message was reposted 500 times or more, or if it had been viewed over 5,000 times. Now, Yang's parents are fighting vigorously for his defense and claiming that "he does not have any hatred of his society." Others seem to be floored that the government is taking this case so seriously, claiming that they are "even scared of middle school students," and exalting Yang as the poster-child for free speech. Ultimately this crime seems more consequential for the government and their ability to save face, than it does for the public. However, it does go so far as to show the extent to which digital communication can cross the line when people feel...a little too free.
Many of the disinhibition effects come into play in some way or another here – however subtly – but I would say that Suler's idea of the Minimization of Status and Authority plays the largest role in Yang's actions and the subsequent consequences he faced. On the seemingly 'private' social forum of QQ, Yang, expressed some opinions about the recent death of a man who fell from an upper floor of a karaeoke building. This would have probably gone unnoticed otherwise if it weren't for the fact that he suggested the 'victim might have been beaten to death and then thrown from the building' among other rumors. In many digital environments, most everyone has a relative freedom of expression regardless of their status. After all, how could anyone efficiently gauge a member's authority or intelligence on the internet? And for that matter, how could anyone truly exert authority over another in cyberspace? These grey lines blur boundaries and allow for a nuanced interpretation of what is legally and socially appropriate. Yang's passive sense of disinhibition allowed him to voice his controversial opinions, influencing others via a "skill in communicating...persistence, the quality of [his] ideas, [etc.]," to either agree or at least be aggravated enough to take some sort of action. Ultimately, the factor here that makes this story so interesting is the fact that it took place online. It is not as if Yang would have the same feeling of confidence and social leisure to spread rumors in real space; he has no authority to do so and is surely well aware of the consequences that could arise. In fact, "he comes from a poor family that runs a noodle shop." Online, the feeling of a minimization of status along with a sort of dissociative anonymity(distancing himself from both the public domain and the socially expected identity of a common Chinese middle school boy) lubricates the motivation to stir up governmental trouble, whether that motivation honestly resided in expressing innocent opinions or spreading rumors. Suler sums up these ideas cohesively in displaying how people are reluctant to express themselves honestly in front of authority figures in the public domain for fear of disapproval, punishment or what have you. However, when entering an online domain surrounded by peers, "the appearances of authority [are] minimized, people are much more wiling to speak out and misbehave." This story poses a lot of interesting ideas about the social psychological effects of digital space and how consequences can leak into the real world.
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