Determining Criminal Liability for Online Violence: Challenges and Legal Responses

Abstract

Online violence, as a new social problem of the digital age, is characterized by group participation, anonymity, and rapid diffusion – posing a tremendous challenge to traditional criminal justice. In recent years, China has introduced a series of regulations and judicial guidelines to curb online violence. However, in practice there remain significant difficulties in the criminal liability determina-tion for such acts, including ambiguous identification of responsible actors, challenges in proving subjective intent, complex issues of causation, and the inadequacy of traditional offenses to cover new online behaviors. This article examines the core dilemmas in attributing criminal responsibility for online violence, analyzes shortcomings in the existing legal framework, and proposes comprehensive measures – such as refining legislation, issuing clearer judicial interpretations, enforcing platform responsibilities, and leveraging blockchain technology for traceability – to build a clearer, more systematic and reasonable criminal law regime. The goal is to effectively balance the crackdown on egre-gious online abuse with the protection of freedom of expression, in line with the standards of rule of law.