Can Human Flesh Search Stands In Justice?

Internet creates a virtual world where anyone can publish his ideas anonymously. Hiding behind the computer screen, some have more courage to say whatever we want to say, including some offensive opinions which may be against the law or violate the ethic value. Does it can totally keep the identity secret on the Internet? Users’ personal information is easily found on the search results from search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Baidu, etc. Human flesh search (Chinese: 人肉搜索; Rénròu Sōusuǒ) is not an official search engine. It is a term that Chinese netizen created. It means that netizens gather to find out someone’s real-life identity like his real name, age and picture. Even the phone number, address and who his friends and relatives are can be found and posted online by the netizens who voluntarily to investigate and share the information.

  The search engines can help us collect lots of information but picking the right ones from it is not easy. Relying on human fresh search, that is to say, the collaboration of the netizens we can have more precise details efficiently than the artificial intelligence. From a picture, a video or even a ID, each netizen who notices a few clues and investigate them from blogs, community websites, internet forums,etc, can piece the truth together.

The most important feature and of human fresh search is that it can be used to stand in justice. In 2006, a man whose internet pseudonym was “catkiller 飛天貓” published an provoking article about with pictures on which a frightened poor kitten was burned by boiling water or tied by rubber band in a Chinese internet forum for cat lovers. His disdainful attitude and cold-blooded behavior caused a rage making the human fresh search happen. Tracing his IP (Internet Protocol), people found he lived in Taipei. The united netizens called the police and help them find the man’s house by the picture where the background was at Neihu District. The man was finally arrested.
  Los Angeles Times said: China's 'human flesh search' Let's have eclipsed the International Criminal Police Organization. Even in the virtual world where people hide their real identity, it doesn’t mean that we can do everything we want. Human fresh search is a strong public power which can stand in justice to prevent people from the punishment of law. Netizens are the supervisers if something illegal happen on the internet. Human fresh search may be considered as a intrusion of privacy because of the target’s every personal information will be posted in public. But I think it is definitely a good tool to crack down the crime, and can do good for our society just we use it properly.