'Eye of the beholder?': Chinese man detained for creating website rating attractiveness of university students
Renmin University
In China, a man has been detained by the police for stealing university data to create a website that compared and rated students on their physical appearance and attractiveness. The idea is pretty similar to FaceMash, the website created by Mark Zuckerberg, which in a similar manner allowed users to compare students from his alma mater Harvard.
Who is behind the website?
As per a CNN report, the 25-year-old man has been identified only by his surname Ma. A police statement released on Monday shows that he is reportedly agraduate of Beijing's prestigious Renmin University—the institution from whose database the data was stolen.
The website has now been shut down. However, over the weekend, multiple screenshots were posted on Weibo, a social media network often called China's alternative to Twitter.
Users claimed that Ma stole the student's public information fromthe university database when he was studying there.
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The website and how it worked
As per user posts, the website was in operation since 2020. It allegedly rated the physical appearance of both graduate and undergraduate students.
Screenshots of the website as per CNN showed profiles of students that along with their names and student IDs listed their dates and place of birth alongside pictures and assigned scores.
A staff member of Renmin University told state-run China News Weekly that the stolen data of students spanned several years. It is reportedly from between the years 2014 and 2020.
Screenshots of the website were first posted on Renmin University's student discussion post and since then have gone viral on Weibo, attracting hundreds of millions of views.
What does Renmin University have to say?
As per CNN, in a statement, the University which is located in Beijing's Haidian district on Sunday said that it is in contact with the police and is cooperating with the investigation.
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"The school strongly condemns behaviours that violate personal privacy and endanger information security," said the statement.
The district police in its statement, which was also released on Monday, said that they "attach great importance" to the protection of personal information. Authorities have also vowed to "severely crack down on related crimes".
(With inputs from agencies)
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