A man cheats on his wife and after learning of the affair the woman leaps from her 24th-floor balcony. Before committing suicide, the wife blames her husband and his mistress for her death in a blog post.
The woman was a 31-year-old Beijing resident who has since become the face of what the Chinese call "human flesh search engines." The term is used to describe cybermobs banding together online to hunt down people who have committed perceived wrongdoings.
There's a fascinating story about these Web vigilantes from Beijing-based freelance journalist Chris O'Brien at Forbes.com. He writes that after becoming the target of a human flesh search engine, Wang Fei, the suicide victim's husband, was disgraced, lost his job, and was physically threatened.
No trial, no jury.
"Within days, photographs of Wang appeared on numerous Internet forums alongside his phone numbers, address, and national ID number," O'Brien wrote. "Slogans were painted on his front door. One read: 'A blood debt must be repaid with blood.'"
Another story from New America Media from April said that the targets of human flesh search engines include "a man who had an illicit sexual relationship, a woman who wore high-heel sandals and stepped on a kitten's head, and a 'foreigner' who slept with many Chinese women."
The story explains China's new Web vigilantism this way: "An information expert thinks large-scale human flesh search engines are unique to China, a claim that appears to be true. This is understandable as a consequence of China's ubiquitous manpower and ingrained tradition of 'people's war' tracing back to Mao. On the other hand, because China's laws are imperfect, the Internet is seen as a way to seek justice."
A teenager lay dying in bed after swallowing a lethal does of narcotics while his suicide attempt is broadcasted to the Web. A group of concerned viewers attempted to intervene by alerting the authorities. Others however prodded the teen to take his own life with messages such as "do it."
Authorities in Pembroke Pines, Fla., are now trying to determine whether any of the people who encouraged the teen to kill himself violated Florida law, according to several reports. The incident began last week when the 19-year-old man Webcasted himself on Justin.TV and posted a message at a Web site dedicated to body building that he intended to commit suicide. About 12 hours later, police found his body in his Hollywood, Fla., home.
A. Randall Haas, a criminal lawyer in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., believes that state law gives prosecutors plenty of room to charge someone with manslaughter in cases where someone allegedly "assists" a person with suicide or a death occurs because of someone's negligence. Florida criminal statute 782.07 says: "The killing of a human being by the act, procurement, or culpable negligence of another...is manslaughter."
"It all comes down to how much is contributed to the victim being able to do the act," Haas told CNET News on Monday. "If you tell me you're depressed and want to kill yourself and I hand you a gun, I could be found criminally liable. If someone is on the edge and you help give him a push then you may have to answer for that. What has to be decided is whether communicating with someone over the Internet rises to the level necessary for someone to be considered culpable."
Some of the other questions that have yet to be answered are whether Florida officials can hold someone living in Los Angeles or the United Kingdom accountable for violating one of their laws. Also, should prosecutors bring charges, how will they prove to a jury that the people who encouraged the victim to kill himself knew it was real suicide attempt?
They can't, says Guy Womack, attorney with Houston-based Guy Womack and Associates. Womack is an expert at federal criminal law and recently tried a criminal case in Florida.
Womack said that the Internet is full of hoaxes and spoofs and game playing is common. He said all anyone charged for negligence has to say to defend themselves is that they had no way to determine the suicide attempt was legitimate.
"For prosecutors to prove their case, they would have to prove that that those watching knew what the (victim) was going to do," Womack said. "And there was no way they could have. They didn't realize what they were seeing. They couldn't reasonably foresee that he was going to kill himself."
Haas gave the same assessment of what a defense would be but said that authorities may feel compelled in a case like this not to let such callous behavior go unpunished.
"I'd hate to be prosecuting the case," Haas said, "but I got to tell you something else, I'd hate to defend it. A person that is in such fragile condition, those words could have put the person over the edge."
Police in Pembroke Pines, Fla., are trying to determine whether those who goaded a Florida 19-year-old to commit suicide bear any responsibility in his death, according to several reports.
"There is an active investigation," Sgt. John Gazzano of the Pembroke Pines Police Department told CNET News. He did not provide any other details.
Last week, the teenager set up a Webcam to broadcast himself taking an overdose of drugs on Web video service Justin.tv. The 12-hour ordeal was watched by hundreds of people, some who encouraged the young man to do away with himself.
"You want to kill yourself?" said one post to a message left by the teenager saying he intended to kill himself. "Do the world a favor and stop wasting our time with your mindless self pity."
Others attempted to contact police and save the young man.
This is believed to be the first suicide broadcast live to the Web from the United States. In Great Britain, a 42-year-old man hanged himself last year.
Updated at 6 p.m. PST: Adds comment from Michael Seibel, CEO of Justin.tv.
A 19-year-old man has committed suicide while broadcasting himself on Justin.tv, according to a report at NewTeeVee.
The teenager took an overdose of pills while on camera and was apparently encouraged to do so by commentators on Justin.tv and a bodybuilding site, according to the report.
Justin.tv enables users to broadcast video live to the Internet. NewTeeVee said it confirmed the man's death with the Broward County medical examiner's office, which is near Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. This will undoubtedly raise questions about the power of Web video and whether its voyeuristic nature can go too far.
The young man apparently posted threats of killing himself to Web message boards in the past, according to numerous online reports. Because of this many of those who watched the man's suicide were skeptical that it was a legitimate suicide attempt and began mocking him.
Some viewers did take him seriously and contacted the Broward County Sheriff's Department. It appears that deputies broke into the man's room and discovered his body.
In response to the tragedy, Michael Seibel, CEO of Justin.tv, issued this statement to CNET News:
"We regret that this has occurred and respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time. We have policies in place to discourage the distribution of distressing content and our community monitors the site accordingly. This content was flagged by our community, reviewed, and removed according to our Terms of Service."
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