网络时代的信息瘟疫及其治理

The Information Plague and Its Control in the Internet Age

“信息瘟疫”是指超载的信息传播,通常由重大危机引发。其在非典期间被正式提出,具有真假难辨、源头不明、迎合受众心理等特征。根据信息内容可分为四类“信息病毒”。这些信息经由社交媒体迅速传播,不仅加剧心理恐慌、扰乱网络社会秩序、挑起群体矛盾、助长社会歧视,而且侵犯民众隐私、威胁社会民主,以至于信息流行病的后果可能比疾病本身更严重。对于部分故意散布虚假信息触犯法律底线的行为,首先媒体平台要有作为:管控网络生态,提升社交平台的自律自觉性;其次,加强良性沟通,弥合科学和民众之间的信息鸿沟;最后,严重危害社会的违法行为需要民法、行政法和刑法加以规制。

“Information plague” refers to overloaded information dissemination, usually triggered by major crises. It was formally proposed during the SARS period, and it has the characteristics of being difficult to distinguish between true and false, having an unknown source, and catering to the psychology of the audience. According to the content of information, it can be divided into four types of “information viruses”. The rapid spread of this information through social media not only intensifies psychological panic, disrupts the social order of the Internet, provokes group conflicts, and encourages social discrimination, but also infringes on people’s privacy and threatens social democracy, so that the consequences of the information epidemic may be more serious than the disease itself. For some deliberate dissemination of false information that violates the bottom line of the law, the media platform must first: control the network ecology and improve the self-discipline consciousness of social platforms;secondly, strengthen benign communication and bridge the information gap between science and the public;finally, serious illegal acts that endanger society need to be regulated by civil law, administrative law, and criminal law.