BEIJING: Chinese courts have pledged to step up efforts to combat online extortion, aiming to uphold justice in cyberspace and clearly define the boundaries of internet behavior.
The announcement came after the Supreme People’s Court, China’s top court, disclosed six significant cases on Tuesday to highlight its ongoing crackdown on such crimes. “With the deep integration of information and social life, criminal activities have increasingly spread into cyberspace,” the top court said, noting that cases involving individuals using the internet to extort others by fabricating and disseminating false information have become more frequent.
The court urged judges nationwide to prioritize these cases, emphasizing that online extortion has severely harmed individuals and businesses by damaging reputations, infringing on property rights and threatening cybersecurity, social stability and economic growth.
In one case, a defendant surnamed Sun was sentenced to eight years and seven months in prison and fined 100,000 yuan ($13,685) for creating and spreading false information about a woman online and demanding money from her.
In June 2022, Sun, a follower of a livestreamer, insulted another woman, Hou, in a livestreaming room, falsely claiming that Hou had an inappropriate relationship with the streamer. When Hou, who worked at a training institution, asked Sun to stop, Sun demanded 1 million yuan in exchange.
After Hou refused, Sun escalated her harassment by calling and messaging Hou’s colleagues and students, spreading false allegations about her personal life. Sun also reported Hou’s company to authorities for alleged violations, including lacking proper educational credentials and tax evasion, and posted false claims on various websites and forums. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
