Writing a "bad review" was found to be infringing the examination and research institute continued: A defendant claimed that he knew that the account was used by others

The Surging News reporter Xue Shasha intern Guo Qiulin

Zhang Ming (pseudonym), a graduate student of a university, was sued to the court together with another Zhihu account, "Ma Qian", for publishing a negative evaluation of the "Liberal Arts Examination Network" (hereinafter referred to as "Wenke Examination Network") in the Zhihu Message Area, and was found to have infringed the right to reputation in the first instance and compensated the plaintiff for thousands of yuan in economic losses. After the case was reported by the surging news (www.thepaper.cn), it attracted attention.

The court held in the first instance that the words "rotten, white and not wanted, and disgusting" in Zhang Ming and "Ma Qian' comments on Wen kao.com were insulting or defamatory to the plaintiff, constituting an infringement of the right to reputation. At present, both the defendants and the plaintiff have appealed.

The identity information bound behind the zhihu account "Ma Qian" is Ma Qianqian. On January 19, Ma Qianqian said in an interview with The Paper that she was from Pingyi County, Shandong Province, and when she received a court summons, she thought it was a fraud, and only after calling the police did she know it was true. She only had her first Chinese, and usually worked outside the home to take care of her children, and never made the above remarks on Zhihu.

Ma Qianqian said that she had communicated with Zhu Bo (pseudonym), the user of the "Ma Qian" account and the person who published the remarks involved in the case, and the other party admitted that he had made the above remarks, and he was willing to write a clarification statement to prove her innocence. Upon receipt of the statement, she will file it in court.

On the same day, Zhu Bo also told the surging news that after he registered Zhihu with a new mobile phone number two years ago, the system automatically displayed the nickname "Ma Qian" and already had an account avatar. It wasn't until March 2021, when he went to cancel the mobile phone number, that he found that the ID number bound to the number was not his.

Zhu Bo said that he had purchased the courses and materials of the Wenkao Network, and because he was not satisfied with the courses, materials and the service attitude of the staff of the Wenkao Network, he made the above remarks in the Zhihu message area. He said that he had reached an agreement with Ma Qianqian to make a statement to clarify for her, and he assumed the responsibility for the case.

One defendant claimed to have received a summons thinking it was a fraud and had called the police for help

The first-instance judgment of the Xingbin District Court in Laibin City, Guangxi Province, said that the defendant Ma Qianqian, who was registered as "Ma Qianqian" in Zhihu, made remarks on Zhihu.com: "I carefully looked at the information of the Wenkao and confirmed that their information was really rotten, and I sold me for 300 yuan on this thing. It's the customer's right to give a bad review, but it's also your right to move out of the group and it's disgusting enough... Look at the comment area, how many are forced to brush praise because you want to blackmail the information? How disgusting are you for such rogue banditry? ...... The little customer service has no good words in his mouth every day, tears his hands when he encounters contradictions, and attacks when he encounters smears..."

The court held that the account "Ma Qian" was insulting or defamatory to the plaintiff because of its evaluation of the words "rotten, white don't want, disgusting, etc." in the remarks of Wenkao.com, which constituted infringement of the right to reputation.

The court of first instance ruled that "Ma Qian" continued to publish an apology statement in a prominent position on Zhihu.com for 24 hours, apologizing to the plaintiff to eliminate the impact; compensating Wenkao.com for economic losses of 2,500 yuan; and compensating the plaintiff for spending 772.5 yuan to stop the infringement.

On January 19, Ma Qianqian told The Paper that her family lives in Pingyi County, Shandong Province, and after graduating from junior high school, she went out to work, got married and had children a few years ago, and now has a son and a daughter. In September 2021, when the old family received the court summons, she was working in the field, "In addition to the summons, there are also some evidence materials collected by the Wenkao network." ”

"I thought it was a scam and immediately went to the police." Ma Qianqian said the police told her that the summons was genuine, and then she contacted the court to learn that she was in a lawsuit with Wenkao.com. Because she did not understand the judicial process and was worried that the lawyer's fees were too high and her family could not afford it, she found a lawyer friend and wrote a reply and mailed it to the court.

Ma Qianqian said that after a friend asked her to register a Zhihu account many years ago, she has never used it. After receiving the verdict of this case, she asked the police again, and with the help of the police, she logged in to the account again, "I don't know how to get (login)".

Ma Qianqian said that after she logged into the account, according to a chat content of the account, she learned that the user of the account was a candidate who had purchased the information of the Wenkao Network, and because she felt that the information was not good, she made the above comments on Zhihu. However, before the first-instance trial, she had not been able to submit valid evidence to prove that the above remarks were not her own, and the court finally ruled that it constituted reputation infringement and compensated the plaintiff for thousands of yuan in economic losses.

She told The Paper that she had found Zhu Bo, the user of the account. After communication and consultation between the two sides, Zhu Bo recently responded to her that a clarification statement will be drafted to prove that the relevant remarks of the account to the Wenkao network are all sent by him and have nothing to do with Ma Qianqian. "I hope the court will return my innocence, this is not my own doing, mixed into this dispute, inexplicable." She said.

Ma Qianqian said that before that, she had submitted an appeal to the court, and also submitted her chat records with account user Zhu Bo, and her chat records with Wenkao.com. Once she receives the statement, she will also submit it to the court in the hope of proving that she is not involved in the case.

The condition for the refund is to write a positive review first?

In response to the above remarks and the dispute over the lawsuit, on January 19, The Paper contacted Zhu Bo, who Ma Qianqian called "the user of the account and the publisher of the above remarks".

Zhu Bo said that in June 2020, he changed his mobile phone number, and after registering with the mobile phone number, the system automatically displayed the nickname "Ma Qian", and already had an account avatar.

"I thought it was the mechanism that comes with the platform, and there was not much attention and association." Zhu Bo said that it was not until March 2021, when he went to cancel the mobile phone number, that he found that the ID number bound to the number was not his.

Zhu Bo said that during the preparation for the 2019 examination, he had purchased materials and courses from the wenkao network, including a basic class worth 2550 yuan, a "daily exercise" of 1718 yuan and a review material of 300 yuan. After taking six basic class courses, he felt that the course content was not suitable for him, and he proposed a refund to the wenkao network. "There are at least 20 courses in total, and they stipulate that the first 2 courses are free." He said that after many consultations, Wenkao Network promised to refund the fee, "the other party showed a very different attitude from when paying the money, which left a very bad impression on me." ”

Zhu Bo said that the condition for a smooth refund is to first write a good review in the Taobao store of the Wenkao network. He had to do just that, writing down a "five-star review" and receiving a refund. The 300 yuan material purchased at the end of 2019, when he later reviewed and looked at it, he found that "the content is biased towards online data", and it is based on this information that he later published the above "... Confirm that their information is really bad, sell me 300 yuan for this thing, and don't want to give it for free...". He claimed that this was his subjective assessment of the information.

Zhu Bo said that on October 11, 2020, he sent a message of "Cultural Examination Garbage" in the WeChat group chat opened by Wenkao.com, and blocked the WeChat of Wenkao's "Wenkao Customer Service". Subsequently, his WeChat account and chat records were published by the "Wenkao customer service" in a number of WeChat group chats such as 500 people and 98 people.

For the court's judgment that Ma Qianqian's right to reputation was infringed, Zhu Bo said that it was somewhat unexpected, "after all, it was not Ma Qianqian's remarks." He said that the day before the examination, Ma Qianqian had contacted him and offered that he bear the compensation awarded by the court, but he believed that the verdict was unreasonable and should continue to appeal, and he was still a student and could not come up with thousands of yuan for the time being. In order not to delay the next two days of examinations, the two sides decided to negotiate later.

On January 19, Zhu Bo told The Paper that he originally intended to bear all the costs that Ma Qianqian paid for this case, and would draft a clarification statement to help her get rid of the dispute in the case, and originally intended to take her over and put her into the case, "The case between me and Wenkao.com will be met by us in court." ”

Earlier, a person surnamed Lin of Wenkao Network said in an interview with the surging news that after the case received widespread attention from the society, some netizens "pickpocketed" information such as her name and telephone, and called and sent messages to harass, and she was deeply troubled.

Zhu Bo called on netizens to stop the "attack" on The Wenkao Network, "We will solve our affairs legally." ”

Earlier, The Paper learned from the Xingbin District People's Court of Laibin City, Guangxi Province, that the plaintiff Wenkao.com and the defendants Zhang Ming and "Ma Qian" have all submitted appeals.

Wenkao.com's appeal shows that it is hoped that the court will withdraw the third and fourth items of the first-instance judgment and instead order the defendants Zhang Ming and Ma Qianqian to compensate them for the reasonable expenses paid to stop the infringement of 5522.5 yuan respectively; the litigation costs of the first and second instance trials in this case will be borne by the two defendants.

Defendant Ma Qianqian wrote in the appeal that the court found that the facts were unclear and the evidence was insufficient at first instance, and requested that the first-instance judgment be revoked or the judgment be changed without liability for compensation.

Editor-in-Charge: Cui Xuan

Proofreader: Liu Wei