​Author | Reviewed by Lu Yao | Yun Zhao

Recently, IP territorial display has been fully launched on major social platforms.

Following platforms such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Weibo, Zhihu, and WeChat, software platforms such as QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music, and some mobile games have also successively supported the display of IP territories. Not only the published content will display the IP location, but even the comments, votes, etc. will also display the IP location information. The user's current words and deeds will hang on their own position. It seems to be a painless change, but it caused an uproar on the Internet.

1. Internet chaos breeds​

In 1993, the cartoonist Steiner of the magazine "The New Yorker" created an absurd cartoon titled "On the Internet, No One Knows You Are a Dog". Although exaggerated, it truly reflects the Internet. Virtuality and invisibility in the world.

You can say things that you don’t usually dare to say, you can do things you don’t usually dare to do, and even to a certain extent, you can become the person you want to be.

In this case, Internet chaos breeds. For example, regional attacks, regional discrimination and other incidents occur from time to time, and some bloggers and big Vs even use the so-called influence to gossip. There are also some "keyboard warriors" who blindly follow the trend, attack others for no reason, and carry out cyber violence.

• A 35-year-old female doctor committed suicide by swallowing medicine after being violently attacked by the Internet due to a swimming pool conflict;
• 18-year-old girl committed suicide by live broadcast on the website due to Internet violence;
• During the epidemic, a Shanghai girl jumped off the building and died after being hit by a cyber attack for rewarding a delivery worker with 200 yuan;
• A netizen committed suicide by drinking pesticides during the live broadcast due to malicious instigation by netizens;
• …

Under the huge umbrella of the Internet, maliciousness is radiating unscrupulously, but he (she) may have become accomplices in mutilating lives. If you indulge its development, it is very unfavorable to the healthy development of the Internet. In the face of this smoky network environment, relevant departments finally issued policies to standardize the Internet platform system by displaying IP territorial functions and create a healthy and civilized Internet environment.

With the public display of IP territories, not only the "keyboard warriors" have restrained a lot, but also various food bloggers, domestic and foreign big V have also been beaten back to their "prototypes". For example, the IP territories of well-known overseas bloggers are actually in China, many "Local food, drink and fun bloggers" are all in Hunan and so on. The collapse of the people who have been in business for a long time makes people feel embarrassed and helpless.

The picture comes from the network

2. Is there a violation of privacy? ​

In the early years, when Tieba was still hot, you could also bring your address when posting, not only to the city, but also to the street, but at that time, Tieba supported this feature to be turned off.

Nowadays, with the advancement of the policy, almost all the IP territorial properties online on major platforms are forced to be disclosed, and there is no permission for users to close it. Many netizens do not agree with this approach. After all, this behavior has not been authorized by myself, and I am also worried about whether it will reveal personal privacy. If you stand from the user's point of view, you will definitely think that privacy is involved.

Some netizens said: "Just leaving a message for the official account will reveal my location. Even if I say good things, I may start to consider whether it is appropriate." But in fact, considering the protection of privacy, according to the regulations, only the IP territory is displayed in the country. To the province, it is displayed to the country abroad, and there is no more specific geographic location information such as cities, districts, and streets. Therefore, the issue of leaking private information is not involved. And according to the existing laws and regulations, the answer does not involve privacy.

IP territorial does not equal IP address, the latter is unique, and according to the definition of the "Personal Information Protection Law", belongs to "the information of an identified or identifiable natural person recorded by electronic or other means." At the same time, according to the "Civil Code" "Provisions:

"Personal information is all kinds of information recorded electronically or in other ways that can identify a specific natural person alone or in combination with other information, including the natural person's name, date of birth, ID number, biometric information, address, phone number, e-mail address, Health information, whereabouts information, etc. Private information in personal information shall be subject to relevant privacy regulations.”

That is to say, IP territorial information only displays provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government or countries, so it does not belong to personal information and is not protected by the Personal Information Law.

At the same time, the following two points should also be considered: 1. The IP territorial cannot deduce the detailed information such as someone's identity and family background through the territorial. 2. The information displayed by the IP location is the IP address assigned when accessing the Internet, not the current location.

Although this will cause inconvenience to users, this inconvenience obviously does not reach the level of invasion of privacy. Just to provide you with a more intuitive reference dimension when browsing the information.

3. Illegal means to change IP territory ​

After the display of the IP domain was launched, some netizens found that some bloggers who had a problem with the location of the domain quickly changed their IP domain back to the location of their account. This is because those network gray industries such as paid IP proxies and IP territorial changes have begun to explode again. All kinds of IP agents are everywhere, and the prices are very cheap. On some trading platforms, some merchants are selling "IP territorial switching" servers, including Douyin, Kuaishou, Weibo and other platforms.

Tuyuan an e-commerce platform

Through the services of the IP proxy platform, it is possible to change the IP territory at will, and "taking the ladder" to change the country can be seen everywhere.

Legally, there are no relevant penalties for using IP proxy to surf the Internet, but using proxy IP still has certain risks. Once the proxy IP is violated by hackers, the generated account passwords, records and other information may be at risk of leakage.

Moreover, many criminals will also use dynamic IP to spread rumors, commit fraud and other illegal and criminal acts to evade the police. At present, major platforms are cleaning up these IP gray products, and at the same time, they are also sending violation notices to the sellers, requiring them to delete the products immediately.

4. Internet speaking should also be responsible ​

After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, many netizens claiming to be in the local area appeared on the Internet, spreading a large amount of untrue information on the Internet, which caused extremely bad influence. For this reason, Weibo launched the function of displaying IP territorial. The purpose is to Maintain a healthy and orderly network environment.

Picture source Weibo

With the launch of the "Clean and Bright Cyber ​​Violence Special Governance Action" of the Central Internet Information Office, we have also seen the active cooperation of major websites and platforms to establish and improve a long-term cyber violence governance mechanism, establish and improve monitoring and identification, real-time protection, and intervention and disposal. , traceability and other measures, and carry out full-chain governance against cyber violence.

Figure source China Netcom Network​

There is no reason for the internet to be an extrajudicial place. In the future, the Internet will change from a "sun umbrella" to a "transparent umbrella", and everyone must be responsible for their own words and deeds.

Of course, IP territorialization is only a mitigation method. Its purpose is to help the majority of netizens see those malicious rumors, traffic rubbing and other bad behaviors, and it is a means to prevent ordinary people from being misled.

However, the existence of gray production has made it very difficult to completely solve the problem. It is a more effective way for relevant departments and Internet companies to take stronger measures to prevent it.

However, in order to strengthen governance, users may be faced with providing more personal information. In this case, how to protect user privacy should be the first problem to be solved.