Supreme People’s Procuratorate: A total of 159 cases of press blackmail and fake news with 423 people involved have been handled from January to September this year
On December 25th, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate released five typical cases of how the procuratorial organs have punished news extortion and fake news crimes in accordance with the law. These cases provide reference for the procuratorial organs to handle crimes such as extortion through fake news and news extortion carried out by pretending to be a journalist.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate stated that in recent years, there has been a high frequency of cases where criminals have extorted money from relevant companies by spreading rumors or collecting and publishing negative information, and using network dissemination as a threat. Since this year, the procuratorial organs have conducted special actions such as “fighting against fake news and treating news extortion” and “prosecuting enterprises”, focusing on punishing crimes targeting enterprises, as well as crimes related to “online water army” and industry “insiders” that contribute to cyber extortion. From January to September in 2024, the procuratorial organs handled a total of 159 cases involving news extortion and fake news, involving 423 people.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate pointed out that with the rapid development of the Internet and self-media, some criminals have taken advantage of websites and self-media platforms under the guise of “public opinion supervision” to maliciously collect and edit negative information, and implement extortion and other criminal activities through paid news, paid deletions, and threats to expose negative information. These activities have seriously infringed on the property rights and reputation of the victimized companies, disrupting the normal order of news dissemination. In practice, such crimes mainly exhibit the following characteristics:
Firstly, the means of crime are concealed and non-contact. Criminals under the guise of “public opinion supervision” seem to be speaking out for social justice, but they actually threaten to make money through malicious speculation or creating public opinion threats. They collect and publish negative information about relevant companies online, use public opinion to influence the targets, and seek illegal profits through methods such as “paying for deleting posts”. Some actively contact the victims to spread negative information, force them to pay for deleting posts, while others expand the negative impact to exert pressure, using the guise of “business cooperation” to charge fees in the form of signing cooperation agreements to avoid risks, conceal crimes, and attempt to cover their extortionate behavior with a “legal” appearance.
Secondly, the targets of these crimes reflect clear objectives and timing. The main targets are companies and institutions in key areas that have high social attention and significant public opinion impact, such as finance, economics, environmental protection, food and drugs, and people’s livelihoods. Especially, large enterprises at critical points such as listing and financing are vulnerable to threats.
Thirdly, the methods of crime show professionalism and organization. In addition to individual new media professionals abusing public opinion supervision for private interests, more criminals have set up specialized companies to provide one-stop services including management, media operation, investigation of negative information, information dissemination, post deletion coordination, etc. They use short video platforms, WeChat, microblogs, etc., to register accounts, form a network media matrix with someone specifically responsible for collecting and publishing negative information, someone specifically responsible for contacting and negotiating “cooperation fees,” and someone specifically responsible for signing contracts and risk control.
Similarly, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate also pointed out that the difficulty in handling news extortion cases related to post deletion lies in how to grasp the boundary between normal news public opinion supervision and criminal acts such as extortion using negative news reports. The criminal acts of extortion using the Internet and self-media are more concealed and deceptive than traditional extortion crimes. Criminals often use the guise of “public opinion supervision” to create public opinion pressure on companies by publishing negative information and force them to pay for post deletion in the name of “business cooperation”. Regarding such behavior, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate clarified that procuratorial organs should accurately grasp the substantive legal relationship, distinguish between public opinion supervision from criminal acts committed under its guise from whether there is coercion behavior, transaction anomalies, and illegal possession purposes.
The head of the General Crime Procuratorate Division of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate stated that since 2021, the Central Propaganda Department has joined hands with 12 departments including the Central Network Information Office of China, Supreme Judicial Court and Supreme People’s Procuratorate to conduct nationwide special actions against news extortion and fake news deep into areas that are consistent with legal requirements while strengthening cooperation and collaboration to further investigate related criminal supply chains and interest chains behind such crimes. The procuratorial organs also urge supervisory departments to improve mechanisms and systems from their root cause, jointly promote integrated governance to actively promote the construction of a good cultural dissemination order and legal business environment.
