Laura Bolton -Assignment #2
http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-china-arrest-rumors-internet-20130921,0,2831881.story
To summarize the LA times article titled “China teen
arrested for controversial crime of spreading rumors online”, in Beijing, a 16
year old boy (Yang) is currently being detained by authorities due to his
excessive postings and criticism of his local police force as he sees that they
were useless and acting suspiciously in the investigation of a recent suicide
in his area. The reason for the arrest is that the police claim the boy was “disrupting
social order”, however the case is proving controversial due to the accused
violation of free speech.
Firstly, while not explicitly an extreme case of Toxic
Disinhibition, the young boy’s expression of negative language and criticisms
of his local police force. Also, as Suler explains the concept of blind catharsis
and “acting out of unsavory needs without personal growth”, the boy’s actions
were undoubtedly “unsavory” towards the police as he rhetorically exclaimed: “Where
is the justice?” The Middle Schooler is not a victim of the Disinhibition Effect
due to the legitimacy of police authority in China; they are the higher power and
have no need to act inexplicitly. The main reasoning behind his actions is due
to Invisibility. While Yang’s name
was alongside his posts, he was not invisible in that sense, however due to the
comments being made online, he was not face-to-face with the police. Therefore,
one would imagine that he would not make these comments in front of a live
crowd of people or even in a police station. For Yang it was simply typing on a keyboard
and clicking “post” to the free-range forum alone in his room, the comfortable and
non-instantaneous consequential environment gave his the courage to blatantly citizen
the Chinese authorities, yet consequences soon ensued.
A common use for social media is as a platform for
expression – it is a space where users can, to a certain extent, post anything
they like. However, as Yang is currently experiencing, when brought to the
attention of the authorities, online actions can have real-life consequences. The
“new rumor regulation” (if a rumor is posted/shared more than 500 times then
the poster can be punished) enforced by the Chinese police is a law that one
might imagine to be difficult to enforce, yet unfortunately for Yang, the
disinhibition effect is not working out in his favor.
John
Suler. CyberPsychology & Behavior. June 2004, 7(3): 321-326.
doi:10.1089/1094931041291295.
