Study On Judicial Application Of Network Libel Crimes

With the continuous development of Internet interaction,crime of defamation has gradually shifted from the traditional physical space to the virtual space of the Internet as a tool.In September 2013,in order to strengthen the crackdown on online defamation cases,the Supreme Prosecutor and the Supreme Court authorities jointly issued the "Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Defamation by Using Information Network",which illustrates Article 246 of the Criminal Law and has a strong practical significance.The author finds through case search that there are still many difficult problems in judicial application that need to be solved.Therefore,by integrating the controversies in judicial application and theoretical views,we propose the right path to solve the problem and build a strict prevention and control system for online defamation crimes,in order to better combat online defamation crimes.Starting from the background of the flourishing development of the Internet,this essay identifies the definition and basic overview of defamation crimes and online defamation crimes,and conducts empirical analysis and research using 82 adjudicative documents included in Case Search Platform during the recent five-year period from 2017 to 2021 as research samples to further clarify the difficult issues in the judicial application of the Judicial Interpretation of Internet Defamation.It is found that there are problems in the application of judicial interpretation such as confusion in identifying the subject of the act,obstacles in judging the elements of the act,ambiguity in identifying the standard of the elements of the result,and unclear identification of the boundary.In addition to the subjects of crime of defamation,network water forces,network public relations companies,network defamation information disseminators,network service providers,etc.have become the main force in the fabrication and dissemination of defamatory information,and the involvement of multiple subjects of interest has led to confusion in judicial practice regarding the identification of those responsible for this crime.By integrating relevant cases,the emerging subjects are accurately positioned to facilitate citizens to better defend their rights.In Judicial Interpretation,we define the concepts of "fabrication" and "network dissemination" proposed by the judicial interpretation in conjunction with typical cases,and clarify that "fabrication" and "Dissemination" belongs to a single act doctrine.crime of defamation is a typical circumstantial offense,and the process of identifying the result element takes the theoretical controversy of aggravation as the entry point,combined with the four standards stipulated in the judicial interpretation,and defines aggravation accurately through both form and substance.Finally,we define the boundaries between similar crimes in judicial application,clarify the reasonable boundaries between online defamation crimes and freedom of expression,and the direction of distinction between the crimes of provocation and false accusation,determine the connotation and extension of online defamation crimes while protecting citizens’ right to reputation.