A Review Blogger in China Who Called Honor Phone a Junk King Was Fined 80,000 CNY

The Guangzhou Internet Court heard a case of online tort liability dispute involving the boundary of speech of online review blogger.

Xiaojiang, a blogger with 100,000+ followers on Weibo, was sued by the Honor Company for infringement of the right of reputation, and was finally sentenced to apologize and compensate more than 86,000 CNY (about more than 13500 USD).

The court held that in this case, Xiao Jiang was a Weibo V user with more than 100,000 followers, and his posts on Weibo about digital products would attract the attention of his followers or other related categories of internet users.  Therefore, Xiao Jiang should assume a higher duty of care than ordinary Internet users when making statements on Weibo, and the quoted content or reproduced information should not only be from the source, but also from a more authoritative source. (Weibo V-user: Similar to users with blue verification badges on Twitter) 

The court also pointed out that Weibo posts are characterized by short content and changeable language styles, but when Weibo users post factual statements or opinions that involve the right of reputation of others, they should follow certain objective facts and moderate the published facts. Verification and reasonable evaluation shall not have malicious intentions of arbitrarily exaggerating, distorting, or taking the opportunity to degrade or insult the personality of others.

Source: Solidot