Legal information

【Key words】

Internet infringement, public opinion supervision, insult, right of reputation

【Case summary】

A certain Weibo influencer posted a large number of negative comments and malicious slanders and insults against a well-known new energy car company on Weibo, which seriously infringed on the reputation of the car company, and the car company filed a lawsuit in accordance with the law. The Shanghai Jiading District People's Court found after trial that the relevant blog posts involved investors, executives, and products of car companies, and pointed to the car company from an overall perspective; the content of the blog posts lacked evidence and was highly insulting. It exceeded the reasonable scope of supervision and evaluation and constituted an infringement of the reputation rights of car companies. Accordingly, the court ordered the Weibo celebrity to delete relevant Weibo posts, publicly apologize and compensate for economic losses. This case is deeply in line with Article 59 of the Private Economy Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China, which stipulates that communication channels such as the Internet shall not be used to maliciously infringe upon the personal rights and interests of private enterprises and their operators by means of insult, slander, etc.

【Details】

The plaintiff, a certain automobile company, is a well-known enterprise in the new energy automobile industry engaged in business activities such as technological development of automobiles and related parts. The defendant Liu is a big V on Sina Weibo. His Weibo identity is certified as: Car Expert, Weibo car video blogger, and he has a large number of fans. For improper purposes such as gaining traffic, the defendant Liu continuously and intensively posted more than 180 Weibo messages directly or indirectly related to the plaintiff within one year. The contents included the defendant's belief that the plaintiff defrauded the defendant of the planning plan, the plaintiff's vehicle had quality defects, etc., and used a large number of insulting words. The plaintiff went to court, claiming that the defendant's behavior violated his right to reputation, and requested that the defendant be ordered to delete the relevant Weibo, publicly apologize, and compensate for financial losses.

After hearing, the Shanghai Jiading District People's Court held that the Weibo content involved in the case involved the plaintiff's executives, investors, products, etc. of an automobile company, and was closely related to the plaintiff's products, services, and overall image. Netizens could directly relate to the plaintiff when reading it. Considering the overall situation, the plaintiff had the right to file a lawsuit and demand that the defendant bear corresponding responsibilities. In this case, although the Weibo content contained a small amount of content about defrauding planning plans and vehicle quality problems, the defendant did not provide evidence to substantiate this; the blog post used a large number of insulting words, which according to ordinary people's understanding, exceeded the reasonable scope of supervision and evaluation, and indeed had the intention to insult and slander the plaintiff. Considering the intensive and continuous nature of the published remarks, this behavior as a whole has constituted an insult to the plaintiff, which is enough to lower the plaintiff's comprehensive social evaluation and cause damage to the plaintiff's reputation. As a professional car reviewer, the defendant has a large number of fans on the Weibo platform. He should use his influence as a Weibo V with caution and express himself in a more professional way. Accordingly, the court determined that the defendant's behavior violated the plaintiff's right of reputation and ordered the defendant to delete the relevant Weibo, make a public apology on Weibo and keep it at the top of Weibo for 90 days, and compensate corresponding economic losses and expenses totaling more than 400,000 yuan.

【Typical meaning】

The case clarifies that when the public within a certain range can know that the behavior is directed to a specific civil subject through the time, place, person, event and other facts of the perpetrator's remarks, the victim has the right to file a lawsuit. If an actor uses a large number of insulting words through Internet communication channels, exceeds the boundaries of the reasonable range of Internet terms, and denigrates the reputation of business entities and their operators, they should bear legal responsibility for infringing the right of reputation. This case involves the issue of determining the boundary between online public opinion supervision and infringement of reputational rights. It has reference significance for the handling of similar cases. It will help strengthen the governance of corporate-related online speech, maintain public order in cyberspace, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of private enterprises.