Abstract: As the basis for determining “serious circumstances” in the crime of defamation,the dissemination situation of online defamatory information faces issues of the judgment of causality and the determination of the frequency of dissemination.The legal interests infringed by the act of online defamation include the victims right to reputation and the order of cyberspace.In the act of online defamation,dissemination behavior is an intervening factor.When determining causality,the causal power of the perpetrators defamatory behavior and dissemination behavior on the harmful consequences should be compared firstly.Since there is no significant difference in the magnitude of the causal force between the two,it is necessary to determine the abnormality of the dissemination behavior.The judgment of abnormality has three dimensions,namely the foreseeable possibility of intervention factors,the correlation between previous behavior and intervention factors,and the legitimacy of intervention factors themselves.When determining the frequency of dissemination,the portion of dissemination that does not substantially infringe on legal interests should be deducted.When calculating the number of clicks and views of defamatory information,the clicks and views of the victim and the robots should be deducted,while the clicks and views of website administrators do not need to be deducted.When calculating the number of reposts of defamatory information,the reposts of robots should be included in the calculation scope.

Key words: online defamation, serious circumstances, dissemination situation, intervention factors, infringement of legal interests