Human-flesh search engines — renrou sousuo yinqing — have become a
phenomenon in China: they are a form of online vigilante justice in
which
Internet users hunt down and punish people who have attracted their
wrath. The goal is to get the targets of a search fired from their
jobs, shamed in front of their neighbors, or run out of town.
In one well known case, when a video appeared in China of a woman
stomping a cat to death with the sharp point of her
high heel, the human flesh search engine tracked the kitten killer's
home to the town of Luobei and her name — Wang Jiao — was made public,
as were her phone
number and her employer. 'Wang Jiao was affected a lot,' says one
Luobei resident. 'She left town and went somewhere else.' The
kitten-killer case didn't just provide revenge; it helped turn the
human-flesh search engine into a national phenomenon. Searches have
also been directed against cheating spouses, corrupt officials,
pornography makers, Chinese citizens who are perceived as unpatriotic,
journalists who urge a moderate stance on Tibet and rich people who
try to game the Chinese system."