Wrong use of net freedom

False stories and photographs to prove a viewpoint or claim can only harm Internet supervision, says an article in the Beijing News. Excerpts:

Lei Zhengfu, the Party secretary of Beibei district of Chongqing municipality, was sacked after his sex video was exposed on weibo. Though this shows strong public supervision of the Internet, a college girl from Xiamen, Fujian province, has been wrongly drawn into the scandal.

One netizen posted a made-up story, "Exposure of Lei Zhengfu's mistresses", to post photographs of some beautiful women on the Internet and brand them Lei's mistresses. Among those photographs was one of a college student named Xiao Lin, which is not only an affront against the innocent girl, but also a criminal offense.

The use of photographs to malign someone is not uncommon on the Internet. Many netizens use unknown people's photographs to support their views or claims or known people's photographs to malign them. Xiao Lin has become a victim of such a practice.

If a viewpoint is right, it does not need the support of cooked-up stories and visuals. In Lei's case, it was totally unnecessary to use false evidence, which will only harm Internet supervision.

Netizens have to show the right attitude and take the right standpoint. More importantly, they have to respect the truth. People who spread rumors and false stories in the belief that they hold the "right sense of worth" can only compromise Internet supervision, and thus increase government departments' investigation costs and provide an excuse for some people who are against Internet supervision.

(China Daily 11/29/2012 page9)