China's Human Flesh Search Engines

Creating a viral video that was disturbing and globally offensive is what landed Wang Jiao in hot water in 2006. In a New York Times article entitled, "China's Cyberposse" by Tom Downey, the story of Wang Jiao is told as an example of the power of human-flesh search-engines. The destructive force of Netizens (Internet citizens) is immense when their right (or wrong) buttons are pushed. The viral video that made Wang Jiao a target featured her stomping a kitten to death with the sharp heel of her high-heeled shoes. Within six days, an army of Netizens had descended on finding the location of Wang and revealing an amazing amount of personal data. As a result, Wang the cameraman that filmed the video lost their jobs and were forced out of their town.

The power that human-flesh search-engines can have is of concern when used under false pretenses. Some sort of mild regulation would be ideal, but is nearly impossible without severely impacting freedom of speech on the internet. International regulation would be very expensive and it would be difficult to convince other countries to agree on a set of laws. The internet is going to continue playing a vital role in political protests, with methods of retaliation and crowd-sourcing evolving. With an increasing number of Netizens, the speed at which information is revealed and action is taken will be even more alarming. With China already proving a single women (out of over a billion citizens) could be tracked down in less then a week, the power of human-flesh search-engines is already startling.