A CCTV program on the Kitten Case
A real human flesh search case which became a sensational social event happened in 2006. In February of that year, someone posted a few pictures of a middle-aged woman wearing high heel shoes stepping a kitten on mop.com, claiming that the pictures were from a SM website, and called for people to use human flesh search to find the woman and those who made the videos. Shocked by the horrible story, the pictures were soon relayed to other well-known online communities within 2 days, and thousands of netizens voluntarily participated in the search of the woman. Some “cyber-detectives” used search engines to gather and analyzes clues such as the business record of high heel shoes on taobao.com, an equivalent of ebay.com in China, and the register record of that SM website; some recognized the background in the picture. Within 6 days, not only the detailed background of the woman but also the man who made the video and the man who built the website were found out completely. The SM website was broken down by the online attack of hundreds of thousands netizens. An advocacy organization in protecting animals was established. The tremendous strength of human flesh search showed its power for the first time.