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China Bans "Human Flesh Searching"

hackingbear writes The Supreme People's Court, China's top court, has outlined the liabilities of network service providers in a document on the handling of online personal rights violation cases. "Rights violators usually hide in the dark online. They post harmful information out of the blue, and victims just can't be certain whom they should accuse when they want to bring the case to court," said Yao Hui, a senior SPC judge specializing in civil cases. Those re-posting content that violates others' rights and interests will also answer for their actions, and their liability will be determined based on the consequences of their posts, the online influence of re-posters, and whether they make untruthful changes to content that mislead. This essentially tries to ban the so-called human flesh searching. Though this does not stop others from using the chance to highlight the country's censorship problems even though the rulings seem to focus on personal privacy protection.

48 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  2. Google: by pitchpipe · · Score: 1
    Google: Fresh Humans!

    Brains, brains! BRAAAAAIIINNNNSSSS!!!!

    They're just trying to stop the zombie apocalypse.

    --
    Look where all this talking got us, baby.
  3. Chinese Virgin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    A Chinese couple get married ... and she's a virgin.

    On the wedding night, she cowers naked under the bed sheets as her husband undresses. He climbs in next to her and tries to be reassuring: "My darling, I know this is your first time, and you are frightened. I assure you, I will give you anything you want, I will do anything you want. What do you want?"

    "I want number 69" she replies.

    "You want beef with broccoli?"

    1. Re:Chinese Virgin by dk20 · · Score: 1

      Just curious, how is your mandarin? I mean here you are making fun of their English accent so i have to assume you speak both English and Mandarin perfectly right?

    2. Re:Chinese Virgin by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

      Just curious, how is your mandarin?

      His knowledge of Mandarin is nonexistent. Otherwise, he would know that confusing L and R is a Japanese thing, not Chinese. R and L are separate phonemes in Mandarin, and are pronounced the same as in English.

      When native Chinese speakers learn English, they often have trouble with the TH and V phonemes, which are not used in Mandarin, with syllables ending in consonants other than "n" and "ng", and with compound consonants. My Mandarin speaking spouse said the most difficult English word for her is "twelfth".

      On the other hand, Mandarin has phonemes not used in English, such as DZ and TS. They have two different P sounds, depending on whether or not it is aspirated. They also have an additional phoneme, written with an X, that is about halfway between S and SH. My native English ears have difficulty distinguishing that one, and when speaking it, I just memorized the position of my tongue (pressed up against the lower incisors), so now I can speak it, but can't hear it.

    3. Re:Chinese Virgin by dk20 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      My wife is also Chinese so I am familiar with a lot of this.
      Among the many differences, Mandarin (Actually Chinese in general) has no concept of Plural so this is anther common mistake they make when speaking English.

      English speaker "How many books do you have in your hand?"
      Chinese response "Oh, i have three book right now".

    4. Re:Chinese Virgin by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Mandarin has no concept of Plural so this is anther common mistake they make when speaking English.

      English speakers generally don't have much difficulty with this when learning Chinese, because English has irregular plurals that work the same way. Deer, cattle, sheep, swine, furniture, salmon, etc. don't have plurals. You just have to learn that in Chinese, all nouns work like that.

    5. Re:Chinese Virgin by towermac · · Score: 1

      "My Mandarin speaking spouse said the most difficult English word for her is "twelfth".

      My Mid-South redneck speaking self agrees with your spouse. I think the English were just showing off with that one.

    6. Re: Chinese Virgin by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      -dei/-deng is Cantonese. Maybe that's what you're thinking of.

      In any case, in Mandarin, it's -men (). It's also used with nouns relating to people.

      If you're talking about e.g. the tóu in liù tóu niú [six cows, literally "six head cow"], then the term you're looking for is "classifier".

      It really sucks that we're stuck with Latin-1 here.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    7. Re:Chinese Virgin by almitydave · · Score: 1

      "My Mandarin speaking spouse said the most difficult English word for her is "twelfth".

      My Mid-South redneck speaking self agrees with your spouse. I think the English were just showing off with that one.

      My 4th-grade (age ~9 in the US) teacher once mentioned in an off-hand way that she thought the most consonants in a row in a common everyday English word was 4, but after class I mentioned that "twelfths" has 5. I know there are others, but that word has a particularly low percentage (12.5) of vowels. I wonder if there is one with lower... off to the RegExes!

      --
      my, your, his/her/its, our, your, their
      I'm, you're, he's/she's/it's, we're, you're, they're
    8. Re: Chinese Virgin by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      It really sucks that we're stuck with Latin-1 here.

      I wonder if my recently-sorted set of cat icons will work. Slight chance.

      U+1F638 ; GRINNING CAT FACE WITH SMILING EYES ; U+1F639 ; CAT FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY ; U+1F63A ; SMILING CAT FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH ; U+1F63B ; SMILING CAT FACE WITH HEART-SHAPED EYES ; U+1F63c ; CAT FACE WITH WRY SMILE ; U+1F63d ; KISSING CAT FACE WITH CLOSED EYES ; U+1F63e ; POUTING CAT FACE ; U+1F63f ; CRYING CAT FACE ; U+1F640 ; WEARY CAT FACE ;

      Bollocks, no.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  4. Re:Typo in your headline by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    The last sentence is a train-wreck too. The fuckbrain just can't write, period.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  5. Re:s/Fresh/Flesh/ by HeadOffice · · Score: 2

    >racist
    unfortunately, chinese people are not born speaking mandarin and do not have a racial/genetic problem with r & l.

    I think it is racist, as over 99% of people speaking Manderin are Chinese...

  6. Re:I think fresh flesh should be banned, but by ihtoit · · Score: 1

    I thought dog was a table speciality in Seoul, and that it was cat in Beijing?

    (assumption based on the local chinese buffet being closed due to EHO finding cat carcasses in various states of dismemberment in the walk-in. That was being served up as "mongolian lamb". Also, the first and last Korean restaurant I know of opening in my area lasted all of three months before the RSPCA accidentally found an RFID tag out of a labrador's leg on a plate of "lamb" cutlets).

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
  7. Showing Dracula the cross by DigiShaman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let's get to the real heart of the issue here shall we. China, as with all authoritarian regimes is diametrically opposed to anarchy. The Internet = anarchy. Only through a non-government (centralized) community vetting process can the people make order out of the chaos. China abhors the concept of individual freedom and idea such as inalienable rights.

    BOOM, Headshot. I nailed it!

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
    1. Re:Showing Dracula the cross by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What they are doing is not dissimilar to what some western countries are like. For example, (re)posting certain things on Twitter in the UK can land you in jail. Like China, there is no freedom of speech there. Aside from being bad for British citizens it makes it difficult for the UK to criticise China's actions because it is no better.

      Before someone says that China is much worse than the UK, it doesn't matter. The principal is the same. The government decides some things unacceptable to say and uses the law to punish people saying them. The fact that two governments have different ideas of what is unacceptable is irrelevant.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Showing Dracula the cross by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      Before someone says that China is much worse than the UK, it doesn't matter. The principal is the same. The government decides some things unacceptable to say and uses the law to punish people saying them. The fact that two governments have different ideas of what is unacceptable is irrelevant.

      No argument there, but you did manage to pick the western country with some of the worst free speech laws around.

      Granted, it seems like the US has been trying hard to be more like the UK in this regard, but things like libel laws are FAR weaker in the US. You can be punished for what you say in the US, but the burden of proof is on the person making the accusation to demonstrate that what you said was both untrue, and caused harm.

    3. Re:Showing Dracula the cross by khallow · · Score: 1

      Before someone says that China is much worse than the UK, it doesn't matter. The principal is the same.

      Hypocrisy is not the worst sin. It does matter that China is much worse than the UK in terms of suppression of free speech.

    4. Re:Showing Dracula the cross by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Before someone says that China is much worse than the UK, it doesn't matter. The principal is the same. The government decides some things unacceptable to say and uses the law to punish people saying them. The fact that two governments have different ideas of what is unacceptable is irrelevant.

      No argument there, but you did manage to pick the western country with some of the worst free speech laws around.

      Granted, it seems like the US has been trying hard to be more like the UK in this regard, but things like libel laws are FAR weaker in the US. You can be punished for what you say in the US, but the burden of proof is on the person making the accusation to demonstrate that what you said was both untrue, and caused harm.

      As a Greek that HAD free speech until last month (when the "anti-racist" law that forbits me to say that the dead Jews in WW2 was less than 6 millions, the Black people are not as smart as Chinese, the Muslims want to kill us, e.t.c., got voted) i must inform you that in most -if not all- of (Western) Europe there is no "free speech".
      Just a couple of months ago a Swedish politician convicted for "hate" speech just because he mentioned that (and nothing other than that) all the previous year's rapes in Sweden were commited by immigrants - the court decided that despite the fact that this was true (as the court accepted)... mentioning a true fact (and only that) is "hate" speech!!!
      In my country (Greece) more than half of the parliament members of our nationalist party (with 10% of all the Greek votes for the European parliament elections 5 months ago) are in jail more than a year now because of such "free" speech...

    5. Re:Showing Dracula the cross by Skarjak · · Score: 1

      I always figured that the only speech that should maybe land you in trouble with the law is speech that incites violence against a certain group. No matter how much anyone might disagree with the statement above, it's certainly not that. It's pretty disappointing to see the state of "freedom of speech" on the planet these days...

    6. Re:Showing Dracula the cross by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      In other words, you're not even pretending to be objective.

      I live in Stockholm, have been following this story in Swedish newspapers and TV, and the Anonymous Swede is correct.

      What the guy tweeted was, "När ska ni journalister inse att djupt inrotad i Islams kultur att våldta och misshandla sådana kvinnor som inte rättar sig efter Islams lära." Which roughly translates as "When will you journos see that it's deeply rooted in the culture of Islam to rape and beat such women who don't comply with Islam's teachings." And this is what the court fined him for.

      Rather than risk getting dobbed in for hate speech, though, I'll just invite to you read Quran and the hadiths and then judge for yourself.

      cheers,

      Non-Anonymous Immigrant in Sweden.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    7. Re:Showing Dracula the cross by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      What they are doing is not dissimilar to what some western countries are like.

      s/some western/all/

      Before someone says that China is much worse than the UK, it doesn't matter.

      Really? Have you asked the Tienanmen Square protestors?

      The principal is the same.

      Been sent to his office again, have you?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    8. Re:Showing Dracula the cross by badkarmadayaccount · · Score: 1

      You do know that the statement is not a lie? South Africa "corrective rape" is in the same league.

      --
      I know tobacco is bad for you, so I smoke weed with crack.
    9. Re:Showing Dracula the cross by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      That is so completely and utterly beside the point, I don't know where to begin.

      You made a claim about a court case. Said claim was shown to be false.

      We were never arguing about your opinion of the case; we were arguing about something you presented as fact, not opinion, which was shown not to be true.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  8. Re: s/Fresh/Flesh/ by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 3, Informative

    Bullshit! It is Japanese people who have trouble with the R/L sounds. Chinese can pronounce R just fine, while L might be a bit off but still understandable and definitely never confused for R.

    Chinese can't pronounce TH, V, and short I because those sounds don't exist in their language.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  9. Re:s/Fresh/Flesh/ by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually most Chinese people can make the L sound without any problems, it's the R sound that they have difficulty with. You see it a lot with Chinese people who speak Japanese, where the 'r' sound is closer to an English 'r' and than 'l'.

    It's not by any means a universal problem either. My Chinese girlfriend can make both sounds easily. In fact my name has an L in it but transliterated into Japanese it becomes an R, and since we speak to each other in Japanese she always says it with an R even though she can say it the English way too. I think I prefer the Japanese version anyway.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  10. Re:Soylent green by davester666 · · Score: 3, Funny

    No. You REALLY don't want to know how they make it yellow.

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  11. Re: s/Fresh/Flesh/ by taiwanjohn · · Score: 5, Informative

    In my experience, it varies from region to region. Some have trouble with V, some don't; some mix up L and R, some don't; most have trouble with terminal consonants. Even when speaking their so-called "common" language, Mandarin, the regional accents can be almost incomprehensible (the way a Texan might have trouble in Ireland, or a Welshman in Wyoming). A perfect example of this was Deng Xiaoping, who was notoriously hard to understand.

    This is why Chinese language TV stations (incl. Taiwan, HK, etc) tend to have Chinese subtitles for their Chinese content. A lot of folks, especially in the older generation, just don't speak Mandarin all that well.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
  12. s/Fresh/Flesh/ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    I can't tell if it's a stupid accidental typo or a stupid intentional joke. :/

    1. Re:s/Fresh/Flesh/ by HeadOffice · · Score: 2

      Hmm, you (or another Anonymous C.) were the one linking this specific pronounciation to Mandarin.

      If you would agree that over 99% of Mandarin speaking people are Chinese, wouldn't it be reasonable to say that this should be called making fun of, not an arbitrary, but a Chinese foreign-language speaking person?

      'Making fun of' is not necessarily bullying, but it is still racist if it is based on the characteristics of the (Manderin speaking) Chinese.

    2. Re:s/Fresh/Flesh/ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      When making fun of somebody (in a non bullying way) this is always related to that person. Following your logic, making fun of something is always racist. Like when I say, zze Germans. Now I'm racist to Germans. Or I say say aboot, racist to Canadians. Do you know that old television series, allo allo? Racist to the French and the Germans.

      Your logic is flawed in this sense. It's just funny when you say something like 'Flied Lice?'. It really isn't racist, at least for my definition of it.

    3. Re:s/Fresh/Flesh/ by conscarcdr · · Score: 1

      The only Chinese person I've heard pronouncing "r" as "l" was from South Park. How do I know? I'm Chinese.

    4. Re:s/Fresh/Flesh/ by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      What's racist about foreign people having accents? That's not even genetic, that's a cultural-linguistic issue.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    5. Re:s/Fresh/Flesh/ by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Racist is when we start prosecuting, harassing or bullying other human beings depending on their characteristic looks or culture.

      Actually, that's racial or ethnic discrimination (depending whether it's based on the looks or culture); racism is merely ascribing characteristics, qualities, or abilities as innate to races.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    6. Re:s/Fresh/Flesh/ by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Nah, jokes about religions are politically incorrect since it's not ok anymore to make fun of idiots.

      My bad, I meant "people with special intelligence capabilities".

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    7. Re:s/Fresh/Flesh/ by HeadOffice · · Score: 1

      Can't argue against logic, if jokes about Germans are allright then making fun of the Chinese speaking English can't be racist either...

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    8. Re:s/Fresh/Flesh/ by KingMotley · · Score: 1

      And since Chinese isn't a race, it's not racist. It may not be nice, but racist it isn't.

    9. Re:s/Fresh/Flesh/ by lucien86 · · Score: 1

      .. . . that old television series, allo allo? Racist to the French and the Germans. ...

      You also forgot racist to the Italians and above all the British. BTW I suspect you are not getting the humour, it is not really racist it is really making humour about old cultural stereotypes. . . If anything it is gently anti-racist . . it is the BBC after all.

      --
      Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
  13. What is the summary even about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    What is this drivel? I have no idea what this paragraph I just read was supposed to mean. Is this literally about cannibalism, or is "human flesh" some kind of metaphor, and if so, for what?

    What the hell are "personal rights violation cases?"
    Are we talking real personal rights, like the right to personal freedom of speech, or bullshit personal rights, like the right not have a personally-held patent infringed?

    1. Re:What is the summary even about? by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 4, Informative

      "Human flesh search" is a method of identifying what/who/what place is in a picture by posting it widely on the internet and encouraging people to tell you what/who/where it is.

      There's nothing wrong with that aspect of it and that's not what China is trying to ban. They're trying to ban the use of it to harm and harass people (including government officials). Notable instances of it include people who were driven to suicide because they could not stand the harassment.

    2. Re:What is the summary even about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes, it's a metaphor and not a new one, but Chinese expressions don't always make their way over into the Anglosphere. If you want to read more about human flesh searches and Chinese internet culture in general, I'd recommend EastSouthWestNorth, which gives you some insight into what China is like. Very tabloid; it's like a tabloid version of Law and Order. For the "human flesh search," specifically, try http://zonaeuropa.com/20080802_1.htm.

    3. Re:What is the summary even about? by jfengel · · Score: 1

      Thanks. Cripes, would it have been so hard to define it in TFS?

  14. Fix the title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Timothy: I don't often post comments but this is just racist. Fix the title now.

    1. Re:Fix the title by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      Never attribute to racism what can more easily be attributed to ineptitude.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  15. The title is correct! by cciRRus · · Score: 1

    No, that is NOT a racist typo! That is the direct translation of the actual Chinese phrase "ren rou sou suo".

    ren rou: human flesh
    sou suo: search

    --
    w00t
    1. Re:The title is correct! by Strangely+Familiar · · Score: 1

      Originally when the summary was posted (I read it when there were just two comments), the title said "Human Fresh Searching". At some point, the title was corrected to say "Human Flesh Searching".

      --
      Join the IParty!
  16. Human *FLESH* Search is correct! by cciRRus · · Score: 1

    No, "flesh" is NOT a racist typo! That is the direct translation of the actual Chinese phrase "ren rou sou suo".

    ren rou: human flesh
    sou suo: search

    The idea is simply to leverage on the wide viewership of Internet communities (i.e.g forums and BBSes) to search or identify the actual "human flesh" responsible for the atrocities depicted in viral videos.

    --
    w00t
  17. You know... by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 1

    There are thousands of dialects and pidgins in the world. The problem is not mainly that we misunderstand one another, but that we assume that the use of these linguistic markers tell us more than where the people that use them come from; that somehow they are lazy or stupid for not "learning our language".

    Your language (no matter what it is) is not a special snowflake. It is not fixed. It is not "universal". I doubt we ever will have a universal language. Different people will always speak languages differently. And speaking it differently says next to nothing about the value of the person or the value of what they are saying.

    --
    That is all.