| Qin Huohuo | |
| Native Name: | 秦火火 |
| Native Name Lang: | Chinese |
| Birth Name: | Qin Zhihui (秦志晖) |
| Birth Date: | December 1983 |
| Birth Place: | Hengnan County, Hunan, China |
| Nationality: | Chinese |
| Education: | High School |
| Occupation: | Network push hand |
| Years Active: | 2012-2013 |
| Organization: | Beijing Erma Interactive Marketing and Planning Co., Ltd. (北京尔玛互动营销策划有限公司) |
| Criminal Charge: | Defamation, Rogue |
| Criminal Penalty: | Sentenced to 3 years |
Qin Zhihui (born December 1983), also known under the pseudonym Qin Huohuo, is an internet celebrity[1] infamous as a rumormonger. He has been accused of fabricating and spreading rumors online via the Sina Weibo microblogging website.[2] [3]
He is the first person to appear in court on rumormongering charges since the Ministry of Public Security vowed to target those who spread online rumors in August 2013.
Qin Zhihui was born in Hengnan County, in Hunan, China. After high school, he went to work in Guangzhou.[3] He was a text checker in Northern China, then moved back to Hunan to study in 2004. In 2005, he went to Beijing to work for Huayi Baichuang (华艺百创公司).[4] He joined brand management company Erma (尔玛中国) in 2010 and left in 2011.
Qin was found guilty of spreading rumors about several celebrities including popular television hostess Yang Lan, as well as China's former Ministry of Railways, via Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like service, from 2012 to 2013.
Prosecutors said that Qin's widely spread posts included one claiming that Beijing had granted 30 million euros (41 million U.S. dollars) in compensation to a foreigner who died in a train crash in east China's Zhejiang Province in 2011.
The rumor was reposted 11,000 times and commented on 3,300 times, with Qin's fabrication inciting anger over apparent disparities in how foreigners and Chinese were compensated after the accident.
According to officials, Qin created and reposted rumors 3,000 times on Sina Weibo. The important rumors are:
[2] [5] The weibo is "After just got the news, Railway Ministry has train accident victims in Italy Sissy agreement compensation thirty million euros (equivalent to nearly 200 million yuan), it is the Ministry of Railways with reference to European law provisions relating to personal accident, had to agree to the compensation agreement. If this is true compensation agreement, will create China's foreign personal accident up to record." (刚得到消息，铁道部已向动车事故中意大利遇难者茜茜协议赔偿三千万欧元（折合人民币接近两亿），据悉，这是铁道部参照欧洲法律中有关人身意外伤害条款后，不得不同意此赔偿协议。若此赔偿协议属实，将开创中国对外个人意外最高赔偿纪录。)
On August 19, 2013, police searched the Erma Company, and Qin was arrested on the same day.[7]
On April 11, 2014, Beijing Chaoyang People's Court heard Qin's cases.[8]
Three days later, the court found him guilty on defamation and rogue,[9] sentencing him to 3 years in jail on defamation charges and another year for affray.[10] The court held that Qin's actions impacted society and seriously harmed social order, but said it used leniency in the sentence taking into consideration his attitude in confessing truthfully about what he did.
Qin has been release from prison in June 2016 after his 3 years sentence expired.