Economic Daily: Making the Self Media of "Black" Enterprises Pay a Price
Recently, the WeChat official account "NI+Planet", which was certified as the "Trade Union Committee of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd.", announced that the company had won the second trial of the network tort liability dispute case against Beijing Che Qianli Interactive Technology Co., Ltd. The court ruled that Che Qianli deleted relevant videos and publicly apologized, and at the same time, compensated 5 million yuan. This case has set a record for the highest amount of self media infringement compensation in history, sparking social discussion.
The rise of social networks has led us into the era of self media where everyone has a microphone and a camera. The rise of self media based on social networking platforms, with its strong interaction, fast updates, and wide dissemination, has greatly liberated the productivity of content creators while facilitating people's access to and sharing of information. It has become a platform for many people to start their own businesses. However, due to the low threshold, insufficient self-discipline, and inadequate supervision, it has also caused many chaos.
Under the guidance of business logic and traffic thinking, the discourse system formed by these self media almost revolves around "traffic monetization", while their functions of spreading culture, shaping values, and social responsibility are greatly weakened. For example, some stir up social hot spots, spread a large number of unconfirmed news, some self compiled, self directed and self acted, fabricated false events out of nothing, and some deliberately created emotional opposition and social contradictions, with random rhythm, so that the "trivial" phenomenon in the Internet public opinion field is endless, and false and harmful information is flooded on the network platform. Moreover, some self media operators use public opinion influence to extort and maliciously defame the commercial reputation and product reputation of businesses. It can be said that many self media outlets are currently smearing enterprises, which has seriously affected the normal production and operation of enterprises and the order of market economy competition.
The case of Dongfeng Limited suing Car Qianli is very typical. According to Dongfeng Co., Ltd., from August to November 2021, the "Bullcart Lab" will intensively release 53 negative videos targeting the new generation of Qijun through its Tiktok account. The content, title and comments of the videos are obviously insulting, slandering, demeaning and vilifying the new Qijun, which will have a great negative impact on the image of Dongfeng Co., Ltd. and the new Qijun. After multiple unsuccessful negotiations with "Niuche Laboratory", Dongfeng Co., Ltd. filed a lawsuit in court.
After trial, the court's first and second instance judgments also confirmed the fact of Che Qianli's infringement. The judgment shows that Che Qianli, based on personal feelings, abused the influence of self media to widely disseminate information that is unclear in authenticity or highly misleading although true. At the same time, he did not fully disclose effective information to help the audience make objective judgments, but instead used misleading words for evaluation, which could easily lead to negative or even negative evaluations of Dongfeng Limited's commercial reputation and product reputation by some members of the public, affecting consumer consumption choices. The court comprehensively considered the market value of Dongfeng Co., Ltd.'s goods, We Media's infringement fault, the number of Tiktok account users, the profit method of releasing videos and other losses caused to the other party's enterprises, and held that "it is not improper to determine the amount of compensation as 5 million yuan, which is not beyond the reasonable scope of discretion".
Not long ago, the official account of Weilai Auto "Weilai Legal Affairs Department" also tweeted: Weilai's lawsuit against the holder of the Tiktok account "Xiaoniushuiche" has been officially filed by the court. The reason given by NIO is that since April 6, 2023, "Little Cow Talks about Cars" has continuously released more than 10 short videos, using insulting, vulgar, vulgar, and defamatory language to fabricate facts, distort and interpret information about NIO and NIO users. They have slandered, insulted, and attacked the new energy vehicle industry, NIO, and NIO users, and even repeatedly used insulting descriptions to defame the NIO brand and products, and maliciously attacked NIO users with insulting language, seriously infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of NIO and NIO users. NIO has officially filed a lawsuit, demanding the deletion of relevant videos, a public apology, and compensation of 5 million yuan. The case has been officially filed by the court. The founder of NIO stated, "Defamating and smearing NIO users has broken through our bottom line, and we will definitely fight to the end."
The Internet is not an illegal place. Freedom of speech and public opinion supervision have basic legal principles, both for individuals and the media. Whether the expression and evaluation of speech are based on objective facts is the boundary between freedom of speech, public opinion supervision, and infringement of reputation rights, and cannot break through the bottom line of legal provisions and public order and good customs. Reputation is the life of an enterprise. Today, with the highly developed Internet, a false slander message on the Internet may lead to the enterprise's desperate situation. Moreover, automobile companies invest heavily in product research and development. If self media, at a negligible cost, uses slander as a means to prevent competitors from obtaining trading opportunities, and is imitated by unfair competition entities, the market competition order will be disrupted, and malicious slander, belittlement, defamation, and other vicious competition will be rampant. The law should seriously stop such behaviors that undermine civilization and a harmonious competitive environment, make the self media of "black" enterprises pay the price, restore the clarity of the online ecosystem, and fair market competition.
