This article, “Spread a Rumor, Go to Jail?” is about how a
16 year old boy named Yang Hui got arrested for spreading a rumor online. In
fact, he was the first person to be arrested under this new law called “rumor
mongering”. This law claims that if your post gets “more than 5,000 views and
reposted more than 500 times”, you will get arrested. However, he wasn’t only arrested
for posting a rumor online, they say that Hui’s offense might be the
explanation of a local man’s death. Adding on, this article is about how China
censored Facebook, Twitter, and blocks foreign media websites, they do this
with what’s known as the Great Firewall. I think that the author gives me hints
throughout the article on what he is trying to make me think or feel.
I think
the author is trying to make me think that this is not a ridiculous law. For example,
when he quoted, “The best way of putting an end to Internet rumors is for the
government to stop disseminating lies,” by
a Chinese fiction author, Yu Hua, he made sure that the quote made it seem like
this law could help convince us that the law was a smart idea that the
government came up with. Adding on, he wants us to feel bad or sad because a
local man died because of Yang’s opinion. In addition, the author probably
wanted us to think about what we do online and think about what comments we
post. They want us to think about rumors that we have spread ourselves or have
witnessed being spread, thus, making us feel bad about it and making us think
that this law could actually be helpful. Overall, he makes us think the law is
helpful and feel good about it.
All in
all, I think that this article was very interesting. However, my opinion has
changed a little bit because before I read this article I thought that
spreading rumors wasn’t a big deal, but now after reading this article I realize
that it can be a big deal in some cases. For example, it could cause deaths,
like it did to a local man in China. I also would like to know what the rumor
was and why was it so popular. Also I would like to know if the guy was
popular, which could be the reason why the rumor was popular. Adding on, I would
like to know why Yang Hui would spread the rumor in the first place. Overall, I
thought this article was very interesting and changed my opinion on spreading
rumors.
