Looking forward to the “small tail of IP territory” to help maintain the order of Cyberspace

Luo Xiaoxiao

On April 29, wechat announced that the wechat public platform will display the IP territory when the user publishes the content, and the user cannot actively turn on or off the relevant display for the time being. The previous day, Weibo has fully opened the “small tail of IP territory” function - displaying IP territories on user comments and personal home pages, domestic accounts to provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government), and overseas accounts to countries (regions). Earlier, in mid April, today’s headlines, Tiktok, Zhihu, xiaohongshu and other platforms also launched similar display IP territory functions.

The reasons for adding this setting are explained in the announcement of each network platform. Generally speaking, it is to reduce bad behaviors such as pretending to be the parties of hot events, malicious rumors, network violence and rubbing traffic, maintain the network communication order and protect the rights and interests of users to obtain real and effective information at the first time.

Since the birth of the Internet, the characteristics of real-time, freedom and unlimited capacity have gradually changed the way of information acquisition and communication between people. While bringing convenience, the virtuality and anonymity of the network also provide an opportunity for a few ill intentioned people. Some people concoct rumors in a “manuscript style” and “start with a picture, and the content depends on editing”; Some people use keyboards as weapons and often use cyber violence against people; Others pose as “people are local, thank you for inviting” whenever hot events occur, and try to earn a wave of traffic with pictures or videos made up of clips

The miasma of cyberspace will have many adverse effects. When the public can not get the truth from the mixed information, it is inevitable to be biased by some false public opinion and arouse negative emotions, not to mention the cyber violence or malicious rumors that have occurred from time to time in recent years have caused a lot of physical and mental harm to the parties, and some even paid the price of their lives.

In this context, the online display of user IP territorial function on major network platforms is actually quite realistic and targeted. I still remember that at the beginning of 2020, a wechat official account published a number of epidemic related articles about the South China seafood market in Wuhan and attracted many netizens to forward them. After verification, these articles were fabricated to obtain traffic and advertising revenue. The suspect was in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province when he was arrested and had never been to Wuhan. Just imagine that if there was a “small tail” of IP dependency at that time, it might be difficult for relevant articles to rise.

The change of IP territory from “no display” to “display” is a major change. To a certain extent, this strengthens the correlation between the network ID and the real identity of netizens, improves the responsibility threshold of network voice, and can promote some netizens to be more cautious before tapping the keyboard.

Interestingly, this time, the network platform shows the action of IP territory, which inadvertently makes some bloggers who publish local information “overturn”, because their IP territory is inconsistent with the region in the usual published content. For example, some bloggers who “take you to Beijing” are far away from Guangdong and Hunan; The blogger of “XX in Europe” is actually in a province in Southwest China… Some bloggers responded to this, and some platform contents are distributed by contracted operating companies.

Objectively speaking, displaying IP territory is a part of the work related to maintaining the network environment. It can not eliminate all illegal acts on the network, and even improper use may have negative effects. For example, some netizens questioned that showing the location would lead to regional discrimination, while others believed that it would facilitate some people to engage in illegal activities with the help of virtual IP… All these need to be solved by the network platform through subsequent optimization and improvement of relevant functions. As for how much the “small tail” of IP territory can play, let time and practice speak.

To create a healthy, orderly and clean network environment requires the joint efforts of legislative, judicial, administrative departments and Internet related enterprises, the whole chain governance and supervision, and all Internet users to constantly improve their self-quality and restrict their behavior. The more “aboveboard” users, the stronger the healthy and orderly atmosphere of the Internet, and the smaller the space left for ill intentioned people to “play”.