Whoever fabricates a false danger, epidemic situation, disaster situation or warning situation and spreads it on the information network or other media, or knowingly spreads it on the information network or other media, thus seriously disrupting social order, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance; If serious consequences are caused, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years. Whoever knowingly spreads false information on the information network, or organizes or instructs personnel to spread it on the information network, thus causing serious social disorder, shall be convicted and punished for the crime of stirring up trouble. When convicting the behavior of publishing false information, it is necessary to standardize the judgment of the published false information and the subjective intention of the perpetrator, and the perpetrator should not be convicted just because it is proved that the published information is false afterwards.
In June 2022, relying on the "Net Net" series of special actions, the network security department of the public security organ continued to investigate and crack down on illegal crimes related to the "network water army" according to law. In the past three years, it has investigated more than 600 related cases, arrested more than 4,000 suspects and achieved initial results. However, influenced by factors such as "flow economy" and "fan economy", the illegal and criminal activities related to "network water army" are still repeatedly banned. From now on, the Network Security Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security will launch a six-month nationwide special campaign to crack down on and rectify the "network water army" according to law.
What does water army mean?
1, the network water army refers to the hired network writers who publish specific information for specific content in the network.
2. the network water army is usually called the water army, also known as the network gunman. They are usually active in e-commerce websites, forums, Weibo and other social networking platforms. They influence normal users by pretending to be ordinary netizens or consumers, and by publishing, replying and spreading blog posts.
legal ground
Criminal law of the people's Republic of China
Article 246 Whoever publicly insults others by violence or other means or fabricates facts to slander others, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, public surveillance or deprivation of political rights.
Article 291 Whoever throws false explosive, toxic, radioactive or infectious disease pathogens, or fabricates terrorist information such as explosion threat, biochemical threat or radiation threat, or intentionally spreads it knowing that it is fabricated terrorist information, thus seriously disrupting social order, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention or public surveillance; If serious consequences are caused, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years. Whoever fabricates a false danger, epidemic situation, disaster situation or warning situation and spreads it on the information network or other media, or knowingly spreads it on the information network or other media, thus seriously disrupting social order, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance; If serious consequences are caused, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years. "