Human flesh search engine
Encyclopedia
Human Flesh Search is a primarily Chinese
internet phenomenon of massive researching using Internet media such as blog
s and forum
s. It has generally been stigmatized as being for the purpose of identifying and exposing individuals to public humiliation
, usually out of Chinese nationalistic sentiment
, or to break the Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China
. More recent analyses, however, have shown that it is also used for a number of other reasons, including exposing government corruption, identifying hit and run
drivers, and exposing scientific fraud, as well as for more "entertainment" related items such as identifying people seen in pictures. A categorization of hundreds of HFS episodes can be found in the 2010 IEEE Computer paper A Study of the Human Flesh Search Engine: Crowd-Powered Expansion of Online Knowledge.
The system is based on massive human collaboration
. The name refers both to the use of knowledge contributed by human beings through social networking, as well as the fact that the searches are usually dedicated to finding the identity of a human being who has committed some sort of offense or social breach online. People conducting such research are commonly referred to collectively as "Human Flesh Search Engines".
Because of the convenient and efficient nature of information sharing in cyberspace
, the Human Flesh Search is often used to acquire information usually difficult or impossible to find by other conventional means (such as a library or Google
). Such information, once available, can be rapidly distributed to hundreds of websites, making it an extremely powerful mass media
. The purposes of human flesh search vary from providing technical/professional Q&A support
, to revealing private/classified information about specific individuals or organizations (therefore breaching the internet confidentiality and anonymity). Because personal knowledge or unofficial (sometimes illegal) access are frequently depended upon to acquire this information, the reliability and accuracy of such searches often vary.
forums in 2001, coined by Mop to describe "a search that was human-powered rather than computer-driven". The original human flesh search engine was a subforum on Mop similar to a question-and-answer (Q&A) site
, focusing on entertainment related questions. Gradually, the definition of the term evolved from not just a search by humans, but also a search of humans.
collaborated to identify an Internet celebrity
named "Poison" (毒药). The man was found out to be a high-level government official. In the process, netizens coined the line "On the Internet, everybody knows you're a dog
", meaning that anonymity is not guaranteed on the Internet.
However, Fei-Yue Wang et al. state that the earliest HFS search was in 2001, "when a user posted a photo of a young woman on a Chinese online forum..., and claimed she was his girlfriend." She was eventually identified as a minor celebrity and the initial claim was discredited.
Over the years, the Human Flesh Search was repeatedly deployed, sometimes fueling moral crusade
s against socially unacceptable behaviors, such as political corruption
, extramarital affairs, animal cruelties or perceived betrayal
/hostilities towards the Chinese nation. Individuals on the receiving end often have their real-life identities or private information made public, and can be subjected to harassment such as hate mail
s/calls, death threat
s, graffiti
and social humiliation. Organizations can be subjected to coordinated cyber-attacks.
The Baojia system
of community rule-of-law in ancient China bears strong similarities with Human Flesh Search. Both are based on some form of vigilantism.
in Beijing
called it an alarming phenomenon because of its implications in cyber-violence and violations of privacy law
.
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
internet phenomenon of massive researching using Internet media such as blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s and forum
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
s. It has generally been stigmatized as being for the purpose of identifying and exposing individuals to public humiliation
Public humiliation
Public humiliation was often used by local communities to punish minor and petty criminals before the age of large, modern prisons .- Shameful exposure :...
, usually out of Chinese nationalistic sentiment
Chinese nationalism
Chinese nationalism , sometimes synonymous with Chinese patriotism refers to cultural, historiographical, and political theories, movements and beliefs that assert the idea of a cohesive, unified Chinese people and culture in a unified country known as China...
, or to break the Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China
Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China
Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China is conducted under a wide variety of laws and administrative regulations. There are no specific laws or regulations which the censorship follows...
. More recent analyses, however, have shown that it is also used for a number of other reasons, including exposing government corruption, identifying hit and run
Hit and run (vehicular)
Hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic accident , and failing to stop and identify oneself afterwards...
drivers, and exposing scientific fraud, as well as for more "entertainment" related items such as identifying people seen in pictures. A categorization of hundreds of HFS episodes can be found in the 2010 IEEE Computer paper A Study of the Human Flesh Search Engine: Crowd-Powered Expansion of Online Knowledge.
The system is based on massive human collaboration
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....
. The name refers both to the use of knowledge contributed by human beings through social networking, as well as the fact that the searches are usually dedicated to finding the identity of a human being who has committed some sort of offense or social breach online. People conducting such research are commonly referred to collectively as "Human Flesh Search Engines".
Because of the convenient and efficient nature of information sharing in cyberspace
Cyberspace
Cyberspace is the electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place.The term "cyberspace" was first used by the cyberpunk science fiction author William Gibson, though the concept was described somewhat earlier, for example in the Vernor Vinge short story "True...
, the Human Flesh Search is often used to acquire information usually difficult or impossible to find by other conventional means (such as a library or Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
). Such information, once available, can be rapidly distributed to hundreds of websites, making it an extremely powerful mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
. The purposes of human flesh search vary from providing technical/professional Q&A support
Knowledge market
A knowledge market is a mechanism for distributing knowledge resources. There are two views on knowledge and how knowledge markets can function. One view uses a legal construct of intellectual property to make knowledge a typical scarce resource, so the traditional commodity market mechanism can be...
, to revealing private/classified information about specific individuals or organizations (therefore breaching the internet confidentiality and anonymity). Because personal knowledge or unofficial (sometimes illegal) access are frequently depended upon to acquire this information, the reliability and accuracy of such searches often vary.
Etymology
The term originated from the MopMOP (Internet site)
MOP is a popular Chinese BBS....
forums in 2001, coined by Mop to describe "a search that was human-powered rather than computer-driven". The original human flesh search engine was a subforum on Mop similar to a question-and-answer (Q&A) site
Knowledge market
A knowledge market is a mechanism for distributing knowledge resources. There are two views on knowledge and how knowledge markets can function. One view uses a legal construct of intellectual property to make knowledge a typical scarce resource, so the traditional commodity market mechanism can be...
, focusing on entertainment related questions. Gradually, the definition of the term evolved from not just a search by humans, but also a search of humans.
History
An early Human Flesh Search dated back to March 2006, when netizens on Tianya ClubTianya Club
Tianya Club is an Internet forum in China; currently it is the 12th most visited site in the People's Republic of China and 72nd overall. It was founded on 14 February 1999.It provides BBS, blog, microblog and photo album services....
collaborated to identify an Internet celebrity
Internet celebrity
An Internet celebrity, cyberstar or online celebrity is someone who has become famous by means of the Internet. Such fame is based less upon raw numbers, as with traditional media...
named "Poison" (毒药). The man was found out to be a high-level government official. In the process, netizens coined the line "On the Internet, everybody knows you're a dog
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog
"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" is an adage which began as the caption of a cartoon by Peter Steiner published by The New Yorker on July 5, 1993. The cartoon features two dogs: one sitting on a chair in front of a computer, speaking the caption to a second dog sitting on the floor...
", meaning that anonymity is not guaranteed on the Internet.
However, Fei-Yue Wang et al. state that the earliest HFS search was in 2001, "when a user posted a photo of a young woman on a Chinese online forum..., and claimed she was his girlfriend." She was eventually identified as a minor celebrity and the initial claim was discredited.
Over the years, the Human Flesh Search was repeatedly deployed, sometimes fueling moral crusade
Moral panic
A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics and credited creator of the term, a moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of...
s against socially unacceptable behaviors, such as political corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
, extramarital affairs, animal cruelties or perceived betrayal
Hanjian
In Chinese culture, a Hanjian is a derogatory and pejorative term for a race traitor to the Han Chinese nation or state, and to a lesser extent, Han ethnicity. The word Hanjian is distinct from the general word for traitor, which could be used for any race or country...
/hostilities towards the Chinese nation. Individuals on the receiving end often have their real-life identities or private information made public, and can be subjected to harassment such as hate mail
Hate mail
Hate mail is a form of harassment, usually consisting of invective and potentially intimidating or threatening comments towards the recipient...
s/calls, death threat
Death threat
A death threat is a threat of death, often made anonymously, by one person or a group of people to kill another person or groups of people. These threats are usually designed to intimidate victims in order to manipulate their behavior, thus a death threat is a form of coercion...
s, graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
and social humiliation. Organizations can be subjected to coordinated cyber-attacks.
The Baojia system
Baojia system
The baojia system was an invention of Wang Anshi of the Song Dynasty, who created this community-based system of law enforcement and civil control that was included in his large reform of Chinese government from 1069-1076.-Imperial China:...
of community rule-of-law in ancient China bears strong similarities with Human Flesh Search. Both are based on some form of vigilantism.
Stance of the People's Republic of China
In December 2008, The People's CourtSupreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China
The Supreme People's Court is the highest court in the mainland area of the People's Republic of China...
in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
called it an alarming phenomenon because of its implications in cyber-violence and violations of privacy law
Privacy law
Privacy law refers to the laws which deal with the regulation of personal information about individuals which can be collected by governments and other public as well as private organizations and its storage and use....
.
Notable examples
- Li Gang incidentLi Gang incidentThe Li Gang incident occurred on the evening of October 16, 2010, inside Hebei University in Baoding in Hebei province, when a black Volkswagen Magotan traveling down a narrow lane hit two university students. One of them, 20-year-old Chen Xiaofeng , a student from Shijiazhuang at the Electronic...
: On October 16, 2010, a drunk-driving student hit a pair of university students whilst driving inside Hebei UniversityHebei UniversityHebei University is the only Comprehensive University in Hebei which is directly under Hebei provincial government and the Ministry of Education, China. It's located in Baoding, Hebei Province, China....
, with one fatality, and was reported to have shouted “Sue me if you dare, my dad is Li Gang!” when apprehended. Following the spread of the news on Chinese internet forums, the driver's identity was revealed as Li Qiming, the son of the deputy director of the local public security bureauPublic Security BureauIn the People's Republic of China, a public security bureau refers to the government offices while the smaller offices are called Police posts which are similar in concept to the Japanese Kōban system) present in each province and municipality that handles policing , public security, and...
. - 2008 Sichuan Earthquake hate speech controversy: In 2008, a girl called Zhang Ya (张雅) from LiaoningLiaoning' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the northeast of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "辽" , a name taken from the Liao River that flows through the province. "Níng" means "peace"...
province, Northeast ChinaNortheast ChinaNortheast China, historically known in English as Manchuria, is a geographical region of China, consisting of the three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The region is sometimes called the Three Northeast Provinces...
, posted a four minute video of herself complaining about the amount of attention the Sichuan earthquake2008 Sichuan earthquakeThe 2008 Sichuan earthquake or the Great Sichuan Earthquake was a deadly earthquake that measured at 8.0 Msand 7.9 Mw occurred at 14:28:01 CST...
victims were receiving on television. An intense response from Internet vigilantes resulted in the girl's personal details (even including her blood type) being made available online, as well as dozens of abusive video responses on Chinese websites and blogs. The girl was taken into police custody for three days as protection from vigilante death threats. - Hangzhou kitten killer: In 2006, Wang Jue, a Chinese nurse appearing in a disturbing internet crush videoCrush filmCrush films are videos of animals being crushed by being stepped on. The term hard crush refers to videos portraying the compaction death of larger animals Crush films are videos of animals being crushed by being stepped on. The term hard crush refers to videos portraying the compaction death of...
stomping a cat with her high-heel shoes, gave herself up to authorities after bloggers and some print media started a campaign to trace back the recording. The cameraman, a provincial TV employee, and Wang lost their jobs when netizens discovered their identities.
Further reading
- Bing Wang, Bonan Hou, Yiping Yao, Laibin Yan. Human Flesh Search Model Incorporating Network Expansion and GOSSIP with Feedback. 2009 13th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Distributed Simulation and Real Time Applications (DS-RT 2009): 82-88.
External links
- Google Human Flesh Search (April Fools Joke)
- 'Human Flesh Search' a crime? China Daily, August 27, 2008
- 'From flash mob to lynch mob' CNN, June 5, 2007
- 'Human Flesh Search Engines’ Set Their Sights on Official Misbehavior Sky Canaves, The Wall Street Journal, December 29, 2008
- TVO's Search Engine podcast on The Human Flesh Search Engine In the absence of a fair and open judicial system, Chinese Netizens have become digital vigilantes. August 11, 2009