Cyberbullying: First enable protections, gather evidence, then choose between court injunctions, private prosecution, or police reports

There’s no monetary cost. It takes just a few minutes on the spot to enable protections and collect evidence. If you end up needing a court injunction or filing a private prosecution, you’ll have to visit the court and may even need to hire a lawyer. The hardest part is documenting everything right away instead of retaliating with insults.

Article 15 of Fa Fa [2023] No. 14 discusses injunctions. If a right holder has evidence proving that an actor is committing or about to commit an illegal act that infringes upon their personality rights, and failure to stop it in time will cause irreparable damage to their legitimate rights and interests, the people's court may issue a personality rights infringement injunction in accordance with Article 997 of the Civil Code upon the right holder's application. A personality rights infringement injunction is a court order commanding the opposing party to stop their actions first. Item 11 of this Opinion discusses evidence collection. In private prosecution cases, 'where the victim faces difficulties in providing evidence, they may request assistance from the public security organs.' The public security organs shall promptly identify the subject of the act and collect evidence such as the scale of dissemination and its impact. Network service providers shall provide necessary technical support. 'Upon assistance in evidence collection by the public security organs, if the conditions for accepting a private prosecution case are met, the people's court shall decide to file the case.' If evidence cannot be collected, the public security organs shall provide a written explanation. A private prosecution case is a case where the victim must sue in court themselves. Item 12 of this Opinion lists five scenarios that shall be identified as 'seriously endangering social order' as stated in the second paragraph of Article 246 of the Criminal Law. First, causing severe consequences such as mental disorder or suicide to the victim or their close relatives, with severely harmful social impact. Second, randomly targeting the general public as objects of infringement, where widespread dissemination of information triggers a large amount of vulgar and malicious comments, with severely harmful social impact. Third, insulting or slandering multiple people or spreading information repeatedly, with severely harmful social impact. Fourth, organizing or instructing personnel to disseminate large amounts of information across multiple platforms, with severely harmful social impact. Fifth, others. Article 4 of this Opinion: Organizing 'human flesh searching,' illegally collecting and publishing citizens' personal information to an unspecified large number of people, shall be convicted and punished as the crime of infringing upon citizens' personal information if the circumstances are serious. Article 23 of the 'Regulations on the Governance of Cyber Violence Information' requires platforms to provide these protection options: one can block strangers or specific users; one can restrict the visibility range of information posted by oneself; one can prohibit reposting or commenting; one can choose to only receive private messages from friends or refuse all private messages. Article 25 requires the provision of quick evidence collection functions. Article 26 requires setting up a quick complaint and report entry in a prominent position. Article 15 requires platforms, upon discovering suspected illegal or criminal activities, to promptly report them to the public security organs.

最高人民法院、最高人民检察院、公安部 (2023). 关于依法惩治网络暴力违法犯罪的指导意见（法发〔2023〕14 号，第 4、11、12、15 条）. https://www.court.gov.cn/zixun/xiangqing/412992.html；全国人大 (2020). 民法典（第九百九十七条）. 最高人民检察院转载全文 https://www.spp.gov.cn/spp/fl/202006/t20200602_463888.shtml；国家互联网信息办公室、公安部、文化和旅游部、国家广播电视总局 (2024). 网络暴力信息治理规定（第十五、二十三、二十五、二十六条，2024 年 8 月 1 日施行）. 国务院公报 https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/2024/issue_11526/202408/content_6969181.html

The order is arranged by 'fast and cheap': the platform is the fastest and lowest cost, prioritizing evidence preservation and reporting first. The court is the slowest and most expensive, to be considered last if one decides to litigate. The procedural costs of all three paths must be borne by oneself. Injunctions must be applied for by oneself to the court. Private prosecution involves filing the case in court and gathering evidence by oneself. To have the procuratorate take over and convert the case to a public prosecution, one must encounter one of the five scenarios listed in Article 12 of Fa Fa [2023] No. 14. If it does not meet these criteria, one can only sue personally. There are two things not to do. First, do not engage in verbal abuse; fighting back will make you the one subject to punishment as mentioned in Item 16 of this section (not insulting others online, not spreading rumors). Second, do not delete content in your own account, as that is evidence. When unable to cope, call 12356, see Section 1, Item 25. To request a platform to delete your personal information, see Section 14, Item 8. For those who helped a stranger but were filmed and spread online, see docs/遇到陌生人出事该不该停.md.