What's trending?

A rescuer is at risk of being taken to court for a video he uploaded because it was thought to violate the right to privacy. This has led to a trending discussion on Weibo on the release of videos of people being rescued, and if they require the permission of the person being rescued as well as the hero of the story.

What's the story?

On Saturday, a man surnamed Ling, together with his coworkers, rescued a child whose neck was caught in a car window. They took a video and uploaded it before finding the child’s mother, who requested Ling to delete the video or be sued for violated the child’s privacy. The rescuer claimed he posted the video only to remind other parents to pay more attention to the safety of their children.

Requesting for the video to be removed, the Beijing lawyer for the plaintiff said that Ling had not pixelated the child’s face or car license plate, which was an oversight suspected of infringing the family’s privacy.

What are people saying online?

Opinions on Chinese social media vary widely. Some commentators attach great importance to the right to privacy and specifically mentioned that attention should be paid to protecting minors’ right to keep their image off the internet. “We can’t imagine it is right that if you rescue a person, you can ignore the rights owned by the person you saved. And you can't use your good motivation as an excuse for invading others' privacy,” read one popular comment.

However, other people think that if the parents really threatened to sue Ling, it shows they are too mean. “Your kid’s life was almost lost. Someone kindly saved him, but you are talking about privacy here?” another comment read.