Criminal Law Regulation and Conviction Standards of Cyber Violence: Taking the Crime of Cyber Insult and Defamation as an Example

With the advent of the Internet era, interpersonal communication in real space has gradually spread to cyberspace. Whether the legal regulation of real space should follow and restrict the behavior norms of virtual space has become an important issue discussed by the academic community. Although civil law and other laws have certain regulations on the cyberspace, it is not enough to rely solely on general laws such as civil law to limit the escalating problem of online violence in cyberspace. Therefore, discussing the intervention of criminal law has become of utmost importance. Due to the ease of making comments in virtual spaces, as well as the large number of people and a mix of good and bad, the phenomenon of insult, defamation, and wanton abuse is the most widespread. Therefore, online insult and defamation has become a typical manifestation of online violence. The provisions of China's criminal law on the crime of online insult and defamation are still relatively broad and lack specificity, which brings certain difficulties to judicial practice when facing serious consequences of online insult and defamation. By exploring the criminal law regulations and conviction standards for online violence, using case analysis and comparative research methods, the criminal law rules for online insult and defamation can be further refined, effectively punishing and timely preventing online insult and defamation, purifying the online environment, safeguarding the rights and interests of netizens, and promoting the further development of criminal law in virtual space.