Online trolls cause serious harm in real world
Can a cheater and a person who has once been cheated get along well together? Heated discussion over this topic was triggered recently after Wang Baoqiang, a Chinese film star whose wife cuckolded him not long ago, and another Chinese actor Wen Zhang, who has suffered an ill reputation for having an extramarital affair while his wife was pregnant, were found playing golf together. “That’s ironic, how can they be friends?” “Doesn’t Wen feel ashamed while standing next to Wang?” This is what the most Chinese netizens commented online.
Those in the entertainment industry seem to be the most convenient targets for Net users to find fault with. After a Chinese actress surnamed Tao, who became renowned for playing a villainous character in the TV drama Empresses in the Palace, also called The Legend of Zhen Huan, posted a photo of her newborn daughter on her social media account, a majority of comments she received were neither blessings nor congratulations, but curses instead, such as, “Your daughter will not have a good end.”
However, what do these actors and actresses’ private lives have to do with those netizens? Why are people so harsh?
The phenomenon is nothing new on the Chinese Internet and celebrities are not the only victims. It seems that over the years, a growing number of “supermen” have emerged online with the Internet being their protective cover and keyboards being their weapons. They showed up everywhere with a fancy name – keyboard men.
Nevertheless, unlike real super-
men in cartoons and movies, they hurt people from time to time under the name of so-called justice. If a man’s wallet is stolen, they will say, “Why did he bring money with him? He deserves it.” If a girl is sexually harassed, they will say, “Why did she wear so little? She can only blame herself.” If a Chinese team loses a game, they will say, “What a humiliation! How can they fail in such an easy competition?” If a natural disaster occurs, they will remind everyone, “How can you have such a decent dinner when there is an earthquake somewhere?” “How can you travel at this point of time?” “How can you not make a donation?” If others do everything perfectly, they will tend to be skeptical about it, “They must have faked it.”
When they leave their messages online, being anonymous allows them to be fearless. Therefore, they can vent all the upset, stress and anger in their real lives on the Internet unscrupulously.
But their negative, insulting words online have eventually turned into swords and hurt an increasing number of people in real life. Chinese tennis player Zhang Shuai and soccer goalkeeper Gu Chao both closed their social media accounts this month. Zhang said that because she is not strong enough to not feel rotten after seeing all the abusive comments, so she decided to quit social media for good in order to focus on her training. Zhang’s response can be argued as positive given many more people have even fallen into severe depression because of all the sharptongued words toward them.
This is not a peculiar trend in China but a worldwide phenomenon. Relevant laws to prevent such tragedies can be found in a number of countries so far, including the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act in the US and the Social Modernization Law in France. Regulations adopted by China in 2000 noted that content that shows violence, or is terrifying, or that insults or slanders other people, may not be released. Otherwise, that information shall be deleted immediately and whoever released such contents will be penalized. But the law has not yet clarified what behaviors count as Internet violence or cyber bullying.
Before the related rule and laws are completed, perhaps we all need to learn how to face keyboard men more positively. After all, quitting social media accounts or giving up what we are doing because of the insults is not going to terminate aggression. At the very least, every single rational person can choose not to join the army of keyboard men.