Digital Vigilantism and Chinese Digital Feminisms: The Shi Hang Case and the Double-Edged Sword of Online Justice-Seeking

Digital platforms have revolutionised the feminist movement in China, offering an unparalleled platform for voicing grievances and seeking justice. Using the well-known accusation of sexual harassment against renowned screenwriter Shi Hang (which first emerged on the social networking service Douban) as a case study, this article explores the potency and peril of digital vigilantism in contemporary Chinese feminist discourse. It shows how the singular anonymous post metamorphosed into multiple corroborating allegations, thereby underlining the empowering nature of digital platforms, but also how the proliferation of the discourse across Weibo and the divergent reactions it triggered raised poignant questions about the social context in which digital vigilantism and digital feminisms in China today are manifesting. The Shi Hang case demonstrates that social media platforms such as Weibo offer unprecedented opportunities for women to expose sexual harassment and seek justice, but it also highlights the inherent risks for digital feminism as it becomes the target of discourses around false accusations, wrongful incrimination, and misinformation. Through a multi-method inductive thematic analysis and discourse analysis of the Shi Hang case on Weibo the article traces the evolving social discourse surrounding the case and identifies its broader social implications for digital feminisms in contemporary China.