Human Flesh Search and a Case of Sexual Assault in Taiwan: A Call for Interdisciplinary Collaborations

Abstract

The digital revolution facilitates a prominent feature of public engagement with the Internet. Human flesh search (HFS) is called "cyber manhunt" or "cyber crowdsourcing". It has autonomous and collective nature and action. Many scholars proclaimed that HFS is considered as a unique online phenomenon in the Greater China region. A promising female writer committed suicide due to her teacher's sexual assault when she was a teenager, which has provoked an intensive cyber debate and HFS in Taiwan. HFS worked like police-netizens, tracked down the perpetrator, and pushed the lawmakers to institute legal mechanism. The implications for interdisciplinary collaborations were reviewed.