According to news on October 11, I have heard of people being sued for posting emojis before, but they are mostly aggressive. But I didn’t expect that someone who posted a “cover your mouth and laugh” emoji would get into trouble. According to reports, Li and Zhang from Jiangsu are both members of a WeChat group with about 130 people. One day, Li made rude remarks to Zhang during the group chat, followed by corresponding emoticons, such as laughing, covering his mouth and laughing. The next day, Zhang filed a lawsuit with the court on the grounds that Li had violated his reputation.Li is required to make a public apology and make financial compensation..
The court found that Zhang and Li had no conflicts of interest or financial dealings. Combined with the emoticons accompanying Li’s abusive language and the content of the group chat,It cannot be considered as an infringement of Zhang’s right of reputation..
In the end, the court found that although Li's remarks were inappropriate, they did not reach the level of derogating or lowering Zhang's general social evaluation, and therefore rejected Zhang's lawsuit.
Lawyer analysis: According to the provisions of Article 1024, paragraph 1, of the Civil Code, no organization or individual may infringe the reputation rights of others by insulting, slandering, etc.
When judging whether a certain behavior constitutes an infringement of reputation rights, it is necessary to make a judgment based on the following aspects: the victim's social evaluation has been reduced, the information released or statements made by the actor are insulting and defamatory, the actor's behavior that infringes the reputation rights of others needs to be known to people other than the victim, and the actor's behavior is faulty.
In this case, Li teased others in the group chat with a cover-your-mouth-laughing expression, which indeed caused some damage to Zhang’s personal rights.But it did not lead to a decrease in its social evaluation.consequences, the court dismissed its claim.