Keep online opinions on track

Slides
Photos

By Zhang Qianfan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-14 07:44

Internet technology has played an increasingly important role in driving China's social progress to keep abreast of its rapid development in recent years.

A landmark began with the "Sun Zhigang incident" in 2003, in which Sun, a young Hubei native, was beaten to death in a Guangzhou detention center in Guangdong province. The heated Internet discussion in the wake of Sun's case finally resulted in the abolition of the country's regulations on sending migrant people without temporary local residence permits back to their hometown in a compulsory manner. This new trend has also been reflected in the handling of such cases involving forced labor in unlicensed brick kilns, extorted confession from suspects, re-verification of the fake South China tiger photograph, supply of contaminated milk powder and the mass incident in Weng'an, Guizhou province.

Thanks to the rapid growth of Internet, people have deeply felt the power of information. Due to its nature, speed and low cost, Internet is destined to become the main point for convergence of public opinion in the 21st century. It could even become the main channel, instead of traditional democratic means, for people to exercise their rights in a democracy.

However, we should be fully aware of the difference of netizens and the people while recognizing the prowess of Internet. As part of the people, netizens' opinions should only be a part of "public opinion".

China now has a total of 300 million Internet users, but they are mainly distributed in economically developed urban and coastal areas, with only a small portion in rural and inland areas. Under these circumstances, the so-called "Internet opinion" is by no means an accurate reflection of Chinese people's "public opinion".

One problem that has long plagued Internet opinions is the lack of sufficient reasoning. It is true that this is not the only problem that plagues the Internet. Even in the face-to-face dialogues in the real world, some kind of linguistic violence or body conflicts and other irrational activities may occur. The nature of the virtual Internet space aggravates such irrational tendencies. The absence of direct and face-to-face communications in Internet dialogues has emboldened people to express their opinions without worrying about the risks of unrestrained expressions.

In face-to-face communication, people have to keep in mind audience reaction and their own reputation. Therefore, they are unlikely to be disgrace themselves in word or deed. In comparison, the absolute privacy of the Internet is more likely to make people shed the garb of being civilized and aggravate the irrationality of Internet dialogues.

Besides, the lack of sufficient discussion in the virtual Internet world would easily make netizens reach ill-informed conclusions on issues, leaving open the possibility of their opinion being influenced by some radical or extremist Internet viewpoints.

Irrationality in Internet communications deserves greater attention given that reason serves as the precondition for democracy. The best decisions can be made through democratic procedures only when diverse opinions on issues get full play in public discussions. Otherwise, any so-called public opinion on the Internet is only a reflection of the "mob psychology" or herd mentality controlled by a handful of people with ulterior motives.

Despite the irrationality inherent in Internet dialogues, we don't need to excessively worry about it. The case of the South China tiger photograph indicates that there does exist an elite group among the mass of netizens, whose investigation, research and verification capabilities are equal to that of any official agency.

On issues of national interests, it is true that some netizens have gone to the extreme on the Internet. However, many of their irrational judgments are the result of incomplete Internet information. To get rid of such content, we should not clamp down on Internet expression. Instead, we should try to guarantee free access to a variety of viewpoints, to provide netizens the information for coming to the correct conclusions.

The prospects of China's Internet opinion depend on the rationality of its netizens as well as our faith in their reasoning. Our young netizens can never be mature and rational if they are denied access to Internet information.

The author is a professor with School of Law under Peking University

(China Daily 07/14/2009 page9)