The Internets are full of human meat users

In June 2006, United States Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) was talking about network neutrality; he became the laughing stock of the tech community for making the following statement:

I just the other day got…an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday. I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially.

Last Friday the International Herald Tribune published an article about vigilantism and ‘human flesh search engines’ on the Chinese Internet. It’s a well researched article that details a number of human flesh search engine cases, but the article seems rather confused about what the phrase actually means.

The phrase ‘Human flesh search engines’ describes a phenomenon or behavior pattern in which large numbers of netizens use the Internet as well as offline sources to identify and sometimes harass a person, who has done something they consider offensive.

But this is how the IHT report uses the phrase:

The term comes from a widely used compiler of blogs and search engines in China called Renrou, which in Mandarin means human flesh. Renrou searches have been used by countless bloggers to hunt down otherwise-anonymous Chinese citizens in cases ranging from love triangles to political outrage to cold-case murders…

…A recent survey by the China Youth Daily, cited by Xinhua, found that 80 percent of respondents believe Renrou should be regulated by the state…

…. When the video migrated to a Chinese Web site, her comments infuriated Renrou users…