Yan, who has tens of thousands of followers on the Douyin platform, suffered significant losses for posting false information such as the use of "zombie meat" and the default on renovation payments for a company. The company took Yan to court. After trial, the court ruled that Yan deleted the relevant Douyin video within 10 days and posted a video on the Douyin platform apologizing to the company for seven days in a row. Yan once again released negative information against the company after fulfilling his obligations in the above-mentioned judgment. He threatened to continue to release negative information and demanded 150 thousand yuan in cash from the company. The company did not pay on the spot on the grounds of cash preparation.

During this period, Yan also repeatedly posted false information on the Douyin platform against a restaurant management company, such as "low prices to attract visitors, and the franchisee went out of business." Later, Yan repeated his old tricks and forced the restaurant company to demand 70,000 yuan in cash under the threat of continuing to post negative videos. The restaurant company immediately reported the case to the public security authorities. When the employees of the restaurant company delivered 70,000 yuan in cash as agreed, the civilian police arrested Yan at the scene.

The court heard that the defendant Yan extorted someone's belongings in a significant amount for the purpose of illegal possession, and his actions constituted the crime of extortion. The defendant, Yan, had initiated the commission of an offence and, for reasons other than his will, had not succeeded, and was guilty of attempted offence. Based on the facts of Yan's crime, the nature of the crime, the circumstances of the crime and the degree of harm to society, the defendant was sentenced to three years and six months in prison and a fine of 10,000 yuan.

Draw the boundaries of speech and severely punish online rumors and defamation.  The focus of the dispute in this case is whether Yan's actions are legitimate public opinion monitoring or extortion crimes under the threat of rumors and defamation.  The law fully guarantees the right of citizens to criticize, comment and monitor bad business actors on the basis of facts and law, which is an important part of the monitoring of healthy public opinion.  However, there is a fundamental difference between "disinformation" and "legitimate oversight."  The former is the act of fabricating and disseminating false facts to the detriment of the reputation or commercial credibility of others;  The latter, on the other hand, is based on real situations and aims to facilitate problem solving.  The use of disinformation as a means of defamation is in itself illegal, and serious circumstances may constitute the offence of defamations.  Extortion in this manner may constitute an offence of extortion.  In this case, Yan first exerted pressure on the victim's unit by continuously fabricating and spreading false and negative information.  Create panic, and then use this illegally created "influence" as a bargaining chip to actively and clearly demand huge amounts of money, supplemented by continuing to spread rumors and slander and threatening to expand damage, in an attempt to achieve the purpose of obtaining property. This series of acts clearly illustrates the chain of crimes of "disinformation, pressure - coercion, threats - extortion of property," consistent with the character of the crime of extortion "by threat or coercion of property, public or private."  

We will purify cyberspace and maintain a clean environment . Some lawbreakers specifically look for problems in business operations, threaten to publish or refuse to delete negative information, and demand money from business operators in the name of "supervision of public opinion." Cyberspace is not an area outside the law. The behavior of using the Internet to spread rumors, defame others or even blackmail violates the legitimate rights and interests of citizens and enterprises, pollutes the Internet ecology, and corrupts the social atmosphere. It will certainly be severely punished by law.