Charles Liu, We all know that what happens on the internet, stays on the internet — but, did you know problems get worse when you try to remove something from the internet?
A Shandong man learned that the hard way when he tried to stop embarrassing photos of himself from spreading on the internet by destroying the physical internet infrastructure in his neighborhood.
The man, identified only as Liu, was a newcomer to Weifang who had come looking for work. One night last summer, Liu took part in a neighborhood square dance, a popular activity usually associated with middle-aged women. However, Liu noticed that people in the crowd were laughing at him, and had taken photos of him dancing.
Liu left the dance, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that these humiliating photos would end up on the internet. So, at the end of June, Liu, who had only an elementary school education, went out one evening and destroyed four optical cable network receivers, causing over 100,000 yuan in damages.
Police caught up with him and arrested Liu on August 19.
We can’t say if Liu was successful in preventing his online humiliation, but an online search hasn’t turned up anything so far. However, we can tell you that other Chinese men have been filmed square dancing, and they don’t seem to mind as much as Liu does.