A rumor of "married rich woman cheating on her little brother", accompanied by a 9-second misinterpreted video and dozens of false chat screenshots, spread rapidly in the past four months and even boarded a hot search in Hangzhou.

Ms. Wu, who is rumored, experienced an eventful autumn when disasters fell from the sky. She was dismissed by the company on the grounds of "not going on a business trip" and has not found a job so far.

The most direct consequence is "social death". Hundreds of anonymous netizens sent private letters to insult her and questioned her "hype herself". She emptied her mobile phone address book and more than 400 friends in WeChat. She once cut off contact with the outside world and hardly went out. She was recently diagnosed with depression.

Screenshot of the party Weibo

In her own words, "The terrible thing about social death is that it is unknown. You don't know when it will appear, and you don't know how long you will die, a year? Five years? Ten years? Still dying. "

101On October 26th, Ms. Wu filed a criminal private prosecution with the Yuhang District People's Court in Hangzhou. After two months of evidence collection and complaint, she repeated a sentence in various ways: "Many people told me that I was not wrong, but I wanted to say that I was not wrong. I didn't do anything. "

At this point, the rumour maker Lang Hejun was only detained for 9 days for libel. Lang, the supermarket owner who filmed the video, explained that his behavior was "harmless, just a joke between friends."

In the video of apology, the supermarket owner, as the injurer, not only didn't feel ashamed, but sincerely thought that things had come to this step, which was far from his original purpose. They wore masks and sunglasses to record their apologies to the public, and their attitude was perfunctory. They also claimed that Ms. Wu's economic loss was too high, which was really "extortion".

Apologize video screenshot

The headmaster's father even ran out to talk: children are not sensible.

The terrible thing is that this is not sophistry. From beginning to end, the rumor thought it was a joke that was accidentally spread widely, which was harmless.

Ironically, if they really think this matter is "harmless", how can they make up a video and pull out the dog blood plot that was later chased by rumors?

Of course, they know that what can arouse the public's appetite, make rumors and catch words can best reflect the "story".

Why "her"? At this point, when Ms. Wu's innocent disaster was widely sympathized and the perfunctory and frivolous attitude of the rumor was widely condemned, let's go back to the original rumor: "A married rich woman cheated on her little brother."

The short word 10 has aroused such widespread concern, even the attention of the whole city. Not every word is innocent. Every keyword is "rich woman", "cheating" and "courier brother", which concentrates people's attention to the greatest extent and stimulates the public's desire to spy and imagination.

A fabricated chat record

It is not difficult to combine them to create an unreal but eye-catching "news".

Imagine if it is not a "married woman" but a "married man"?

What if she is not a "rich woman" but an ordinary "lady"?

What if it's not "courier brother" but "suit man"

People's sense of smell for new things lives in a relatively specific range: instinctive curiosity, but it should conform to the logic and laws of social operation in usual cognition.

No one believes a rumor that is too weird, and information that is too unusual can't be called a rumor, because it was covered up by more and more eye-catching news before it spread.

In the interview video of the Beijing News on February 17, 65438, in addition to the basic facts that have been clarified and restored, Ms. Wu also told the troubles that have been with her in recent months word by word:

"As a girl who loves beauty, I dare not wear skirts and short sleeves. Even if I wear a suit every day, I will ask my boyfriend: am I naked today? "

When the reporter asked about similar experiences before the incident, Ms. Wu also lightly recalled "small things" such as salty pig hands and verbal sexual harassment. Looking at a person's long history, these details may indeed belong to "trivial matters", but for those who suffer, they will not disappear, just as rumors will be clarified by the truth, but their stains will not disappear so easily.

After the rumor spread, the label of "derailment" stuck to Ms. Wu like leaves blown by a gust of wind, but left deep scars. I can't get rid of it. I can only hide it and try my best to avoid the "slut humiliation" that comes with it.

Movie search stills

In the future, no matter who you know or don't know, others' impression of Ms. Wu Can is inseparable from the word "cheating". Whether it is a rumor or not, the word has been detained on her, and it is beyond redemption.

Undeniably, compared with men, it is the easiest, least risky and most imaginative soil and traditional foundation to denigrate women's marital loyalty.

When the defendant woman first jumped out and said, "I am not Pan Jinlian", she was already involved in this false whirlpool, and when she broke free from the mire, her body was already covered with mud.

By this time, even if Ms. Wu took up legal weapons and tried her best to safeguard her rights, the wound pierced by the dark arrow was irreversible and the scar was exposed to passers-by. Most people have no reason or mind to wait for the event to "reverse".

Yuhang public security alarm

This is the logic of rumors and the logic of communication.

? Of course, rumors and news are different after all. If the latter is compared to a knowledgeable, healthy and completely independent person, the former is a marionette, without the thought of flesh and blood, and only needs a few joints that just meet the pain points of society, you can hang a one-man show.

Today's Internet world is like a relay field for a large screenwriter. Under the information that stimulates the senses for a long time, some well-trained netizens in big data systems dominated by traffic have also evolved into streamlined information production tools:

Just enter a few keywords, you can automatically model according to obscenity and association, and produce eye-catching explosion stories.

In addition to "rich woman cheating", "teacher-student love" and "keeping a mistress", other keywords can also stimulate the public's desire and imagination.

Stills of TV series "Please Enter Search Term: WWW"

In August this year, a couple's private video flowed out of nowhere and went viral online. Eye-catching gimmicks such as "17 years old" and "cheating" were quickly supplemented and spread until the story behind the video was described as "a middle-aged male teacher in a high school in Zhenjiang was unfaithful to his 17 year old female student".

After several "relay scriptwriters", countless people accused the couple of "unrequited love" and hid behind the keyboard to insult "dog men and women"

Even if the facts were later clarified, the male teacher divorced, and the woman had graduated for six years. The two were in a normal relationship. However, the channel through which the video originally flowed out has been blurred, and the "culprit" cannot be traced back.

Stills of the British drama "Vienna Bloody Case"

The society works together to create rumors, and then maps the direction of the public's desire to spy.

For example, French scholar Capfrey summed up the rumor: "In fact, we all live in the world around us with a lot of thoughts, opinions, images and beliefs. These ideas, opinions and beliefs are often obtained from oral media, that is, hearsay. We didn't realize this acquisition process, because it was slow, accidental and imperceptible ... The rumor provided a very good opportunity: it reproduced this slow and intangible process, but accelerated the pace. This process has finally become observable. "

The rabble is also picky. Not every rumor can be accepted by them. Some people died in the mouth of the rumor monger because of the lack of necessary "social value", while others sealed their throats like a sword.

Weibo screenshot

In the thirst for drama and contradiction, a person's judgment on one thing is more hasty and simple, and the receiver gradually loses the ability to think independently. When they saw the short 9-second video, their first reaction was not to think independently about the possibilities of the characters involved, but to listen blindly and believe blindly.

The "echo chamber effect" in communication science holds that if a group of like-minded people publish, appreciate and forward a message, the influence of the message is likely to be amplified.

This forms a closed loop. There are rumors, and there are people who enjoy listening to rumors and are annoyed by entertainment. The former does not have to bear the responsibility, and neither does the latter.

Back to Ms. Wu's incident, to be honest, if the supermarket owner just fantasized about himself, or made a video to entertain himself, or even spread it among the villains, the social concern caused by this incident would not be so wide. Such people are everywhere, malicious and arrogant, some stop at action, and some submit to humiliation because of timidity.

Ms. Wu received the rumor dissemination channel provided by 198 netizens.

Propagation and diffusion are two-way processes. It is precisely because so many people are so interested in the face of this rumor and stare at the development of the situation and the truth behind it that the rumor may spread to the whole city.

Especially in the virtual internet world, the dark part of human nature is infinitely magnified, and every spectator is responsible for those who are hurt by cyber violence.

After being detained for nine days, Ms. Wu's rumor monger continued to return to her original life.

Image source Weibo

The attitude of public opinion on this matter, whether it is following the trend or attacking the curse, can not eliminate the influence of those ten words on Ms. Wu. It is diffuse, persistent and irreversible.

? The writer Wang Anyi once described the "rumor" in an essay, that is, the rumor: "It is the water in the sewer ... it has no sense of responsibility and does not bear the consequences, so it is somewhat arbitrary, like water overflowing."

The father of the 27-year-old rumor maker ran out and tried to make peace: the child was "joking".

Public anger immediately found a new object of ridicule: giant baby.

In chaos, "cheating" is no longer the key word, and what "rich woman" and "courier brother" are not important. As soon as the rumor was broken, it was like a bird and a beast scattered, just like a movie that was poked and copied, and the spectators were suddenly depressed.

When Ms. Wu appeared in public view from "liar" to "rumor victim" to "accuser" and even as an ordinary person, many people's patience with her was exhausted.

Record acceptance

But social information is still flowing rapidly. You can't deny that public opinion is often like rumors, "follow one's inclinations, such as flowing water." They must find a ravine that shelters evil people and practices evil people, and find a runoff that can smooth the feelings of deception, blind obedience and shyness that they have just experienced.

Therefore, even if the facts have been clarified, in the next few months, there are still strangers coming out to question whether Ms. Wu is speculating, including men and women, but the most frustrating voice is not the voice of questioning, but the voice of persuading her to "stop here".

Indeed, some people, even Ms. Wu's relatives and friends, sincerely believe that she doesn't have to "go to war" and go to court, but her "cheating rumor" has been further spread. Ms. Wu said that she even had a good relationship with her male friends and sincerely advised her: "Forget it, it's no big deal."

It is not difficult to find that many people, things and things that became an instant hit have aroused public boredom, disgust and resistance after being passively exposed to a certain extent.

Under some kind of pan-moralistic trial mechanism, public opinion has made arbitrary decisions about what it has seen and heard, and at the same time it has spontaneously followed a "stop" mechanism. Once the situation gets out of control, they will spontaneously merge and let those untrue and disgraceful information "pass".

In this kind of emotional communication, the primary and secondary are gradually confused, and the most important task at first-error correction-even becomes the most irrelevant one.

So "Ms. Wu" needs to fight to the end and stick to it. This is not a fuss, it's about everyone who doesn't want to be hurt by rumors.