On Tuesday, Chinese police published several representative cases of enterprise-related online rumors on social platforms, with some cases involving fabricated intelligent driving accidents and AI-generated fake car accident videos.
The Cybersecurity Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security announced 14 typical cases on their WeChat official account, all of which involved male suspects aged between 26 and 44.
In one of the cases, cybersecurity authorities in Jixi, Heilongjiang, found that a netizen surnamed Yan (aged 32), in order to attract attention and gain followers, fabricated the rumor "An intelligent driving rear-end collision causing three deaths" and posted it on Weibo.
In another case, cybersecurity authorities in Shangqiu, Henan, found that a netizen surnamed Xue (aged 41), also in order to attract attention and gain followers, used AI tools to generate a "certain automobile brand car accident scene" fake video and posted it on Douyin.
The Ministry of Public Security's Cybersecurity Bureau stated that the suspects in these two cases "maliciously defamed the relevant companies and products, caused panic among users of those brands, disrupted the order of cyberspace, and had a negative impact." The local public security authorities have imposed administrative penalties on the two men.
The Cybersecurity Bureau also pointed out that, according to China's "Public Security Administration Punishments Law", anyone who intentionally spreads rumors, falsely reports dangers, epidemics, disasters, police situations, or otherwise deliberately disturbs public order, shall be detained for not less than five days but not more than ten days, and may be fined up to 1,000 yuan (about 601 ringgit); if the circumstances are relatively minor, detention for not more than five days or a fine of not more than 1,000 yuan may be imposed.
In addition, according to the section on fabricating and intentionally spreading false information in China's "Criminal Law," those who fabricate false dangers, epidemics, disasters, or police situations and disseminate them via information networks or other media, or those who knowingly disseminate such false information online or in other media, seriously disrupting social order, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of up to three years, criminal detention, or control; if particularly serious consequences are caused, the sentence shall be between three and seven years of fixed-term imprisonment.