Falun Gong Websites Violate the Laws of the United States

百里透粉

The Epoch Times and Other Falun Gong Websites Violate the Laws of the United States Governing Internet Information Dissemination

It is reported that on May 7, 2010 a survey released by the Pew Research Center indicated that 32 percent of American teenagers had been bullied and harassed through means of online-spread rumors, presumptuous publishing of private e-mails, forced receiving of threatening information, and unauthorized uploading of very embarrassing photos onto internet.

In order to effectively manage the internet, the U.S. Congress and various government departments have successively adopted 130 relevant laws and regulations governing the dissemination of the content including rumors over the internet. These laws and regulations include the Federal Act on Prohibiting the Use of the Computer to Commit Crimes, the Computer Crime Act, the Legitimate Communications Practices Act, and the Child Internet Protection Act, etc.

States and cities in the U.S. have also adopted relevant laws and regulations. New York has passed a piece of legislation which punishes the behavior of spreading rumors concerning banks’ financial conditions. On January 1, 2012, a new law came into effect in California, USA, which stipulates that school authorities have the right to suspend or expel from school any students who use the internet to spread rumors and commit other “bullying” acts.

However, the Epoch Times, the De Volkskrant and the Look-at-China website operated by the Falun Gong organization in the United States have deliberately violated the above-mentioned laws and regulations enacted by the U.S. government by means of fabricating false news reports and rumors to deceive the world and violate people's right to know (the actual facts). The United States is a country under the rule of law. How can the Epoch Times, a media organization set up in the United States, not know these US internet-related laws and regulations? It is worth pointing out that the editors of these (Falun Gong) media have been long residing in the United States and therefore should know the US laws and regulations governing internet activities. Such wire-walking act of these Falun Gong media organizations and the staff they employ is in fact trampling on the laws and regulations of the United States.

It is generally acknowledged that press reports should honor true facts most, and any single news story should embody five factual elements, namely, “what time” (when), “which place” (where), “which person” (who), “what happened”(what), and “for what reason” (why). The English words of the five elements all begin with the letter “w”, and hence the name the five “Ws”.

The worst taboo, as far as the content of news stories is concerned, is forgery and rumor-fabrication. However, recently some articles published by the Falun Gong media including the Epoch Times, the Look-at-China website and the De Volkskrant newspaper, were found to be full of such unacceptable wordings as “according to reliable sources”, “according to sources”, “it is rumored”, “reliable sources indicate”, and "some people think that". By using such wordings, it is difficult to guarantee the authenticity of the facts in the news reports. With such content included, these news articles can likely be forged, or nothing but rumors. And those intentionally publishing this kind of articles surely hold a very unusual purpose.

We hereby advise the Epoch Times and other Falun Gong media not to trample on the approximately 130 laws and regulations enacted by the U.S. government, including the Federal Act on Prohibiting the Use of the Computer to Commit Crimes, the Computer Crime Act, the Legitimate Communications Practices Act, and the Child Internet Protection Act, and not to commit “bullying” acts through disseminating rumors on internet any longer.