It is illegal to spread rumors in WeChat groups, and the person in charge may be punished by public security management, detained for not less than five days but not more than ten days, and fined not more than 500 yuan.
No matter how many people are in the group, it is illegal to spread rumors. If the circumstances are serious and constitute a crime, criminal liability shall be investigated in accordance with the law and the person shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, public surveillance, or deprivation of political rights.
Leaking or publicizing other people's privacy and causing negative impact on other people's reputations is an infringement of reputation rights and does not constitute defamation. The boundaries between defamation, violations of public security and management, and civil torts: defamation must be serious, and defamation in violation of public security regulations must be limited to a scope that is not sufficient for criminal punishment. The so-called serious circumstances mainly refer to fabricating facts to slander others multiple times; fabricating facts to cause serious damage to the personality and reputation of others; fabricating facts to slander others and causing a bad impact; slandering others to cause mental disorders or causing the victim to commit suicide, etc.
For defamation and other criminal private prosecution cases, regardless of whether there are additional defendants. The court needs to abide by the following regulations:
(1) For private prosecution cases that are subject to ordinary procedures, the verdict should be pronounced within one month after the defendant is detained, and no later than one and a half months.
(2) For private prosecution cases where the defendant is not in custody, if ordinary procedures are applied, the verdict shall be pronounced within six months after the case is filed. If there are special circumstances that require an extension of the trial period, it may be extended for three months with the approval of the president of the court.
To sum up, no matter how many people spread rumors, as long as the rumor-mongering behavior causes serious consequences, they may be sentenced to three years in prison. At this time, the rumor maker was sentenced on suspicion of defamation.
Legal basis:
Article 25 of the "Law of the People's Republic of China on Public Security Administration Punishments"
Whoever commits any of the following acts, A person shall be detained for not less than five days but not more than ten days, and may also be fined not more than five hundred yuan. If the circumstances are relatively minor, the person shall be detained for not more than five days or fined not more than five hundred yuan:
(1) Spreading rumors and falsely reporting dangerous situations , epidemic situation, police situation or other methods to deliberately disturb public order
(2) Disrupting public order by releasing false explosive, poisonous, radioactive, corrosive substances or infectious disease pathogens and other dangerous substances **** Order
(3) Threatening to set fire, explode, or release dangerous substances to disrupt public **** order.