The “incident of a female driver in Qingdao beating people” that has been making headlines on the internet has finally come to a conclusion. In fact, looking back on the entire incident, there was no such thing as a “reversal”. It was a ridiculous “online mob mentality” from start to finish.
01
On August 28, the video of the “Qingdao female driver assault incident” began circulating on the internet.
The initial version was quite simple and lacked any real “excitement.” There was not much information available. The next day, the Qingdao police issued a situation report, announcing the handling result of “10 days of administrative detention and a fine of 1,000 yuan.” However, the public sentiment did not subside. The “chain of suspicion” formed by the identity of the perpetrator, Wang Xiaomei, continued to spread and extend, eventually reaching the issue of judicial fairness.
The “plot” became increasingly suspenseful, and the police’s handling of the incident was also widely questioned. The perpetrator refused to apologize, the victim did not accept the apology, and there was also the issue of “home detention.”
02
The spark that ignited this controversy was the mysterious identity of the perpetrator, Mr. Wang. The various mysterious, bizarre, and suspenseful elements were all based on imagination, with no reliable source of information.
This is also a typical “online mob incident,” originating from a plain and unremarkable video and “re-created” on the internet. The incident itself is not significant, but it is a typical example. The massive social emotions, irrational impulses, and profit-seeking motives of the internet era converge to form a turbid current of public opinion, which is an unavoidable social problem in the internet era. Since it cannot be avoided, it cannot be ignored either. The timely handling of the situation by the Qingdao police is a good example.
When the identity of the perpetrator was made public, the spark that ignited the entire public opinion event was extinguished, and the other bizarre plots that had arisen subsequently would collapse on their own.
This is a successful public opinion response, which is very instructive.
03
The battle between rumors and truth in the Internet era is a complex “long war”. It is difficult to cope with the ever-changing internet dissemination solely by relying on the one-man fight of authoritative sources from government departments.
For example, the “incident of a female driver in Qingdao beating people”, although only a few media followed up on it and there was no comprehensive and in-depth reporting, but the police information dissemination through Weibo, WeChat and short video platforms got widespread dissemination and entered the public’s field of vision in a timely manner.
The fundamental way to combat online rumors is to disseminate the truth, rather than blindly believing in the adage “silence is gold” and “heavy-handed approach”. We should believe in the power of the truth, and if the truth is disseminated in a timely manner, there would not be so many “turnarounds”.
