Where is the legal boundary of the short video exposing the business?

　　More and more consumers are buying defective products

Investigating motivation

　　Consumers bought goods of questionable quality, and were rejected by the merchants. They were angrily exposed on the short video platform.

Subsequently, the merchant sued the consumer to the court on the grounds of infringement of reputation.

Recently, the Higher People’s Court of Jiangsu Province issued such a case. The court dismissed the merchant’s appeal, and held that the consumer’s filming of the video was done with the merchant’s knowledge. The deletion of the video did not constitute a substantial infringement on the reputation of the business.

　　After the case was announced, it caused widespread heated discussion in the society.

With the development of Internet social platforms, more and more consumers use short videos to protect their rights when they buy defective goods or are not satisfied with the service, which has caused a lot of controversy.

Some people think that short video exposure after rights damages can not only protect rights, but also remind others not to repeat the same mistakes. Naturally, the more detailed the content, the better. Others have suggested that short videos are not just shoot or post if you want. Video content , The allotted text should comply with the law.

　　So, what kind of short videos can and cannot be published?

How to grasp the boundary behind this?

A reporter from the Rule of Law Daily recently launched an investigation on this topic.

　　□ Our reporter Han Dandong

　　□ Guan Chuyu, an intern of our newspaper

　　Liu Ying (pseudonym) at the front desk of a hotel in Jizhou, Tianjin felt that if customers who come to the store feel that the dishes are not good or the service is not in place, they can expose them, but they cannot be unreasonable or even false exposures.

　　Her feelings stemmed from an experience a few days ago: a young couple went to the store for dinner. They first bought a group purchase voucher on the group purchase platform, and then ordered some dishes other than the group purchase voucher, which they insisted on using at the checkout. The membership card is discounted for payment, and the store clearly stipulates that the group purchase voucher and the membership card cannot be used together.

Despite the explanation, the couple still shot a short video claiming that the store deceived consumers.

In order to prevent the other party's release of videos from affecting customer flow, the store had to compromise.

　　"Has short video exposure become a weapon for arrogant customers?" Liu Ying was very confused.

　　Liu Ying's experience is not alone.

Nowadays, if some consumers buy defective products online or offline or are not satisfied with the service, they will shoot short videos and upload them to social platforms. The video content includes the product and the shopping process, and some even expose the communication with the seller. , Either exaggerate or use some extreme remarks in the accompanying text.

These behaviors make the exposed businesses very distressed.

　　A recent investigation by a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily found that on many social platforms, short videos that expose businesses are not uncommon, most of which are accompanied by chat screenshots and store names.

　　Take a head short video platform as an example. There are a lot of exposed videos under the topic #无良商#, including a lot of screen recordings of chats between buyers and sellers, with a total of 950 million views.

The reporter checked these short videos and found that some chat screenshots or screen recordings were not blurred, and some accompanying texts used words such as "junk" and "fraudster".

　　There is nothing wrong with buying defective goods or being dissatisfied with the service, wanting to defend rights or reminding others to "avoid pits", but these actions should be within the scope of the law.

The reporter combed through the open cases and found that some buyers exposed the sellers through social platforms, not only failed to defend their rights, but they might be liable for infringement.

　　The People's Court of Jianyang District, Nanping City, Fujian Province recently mediated a dispute over reputation rights caused by publishing short videos to defend rights.

A jewelry store operated by Cheng in Masha Town, Jianyang, in Zhou, in the same town, exchanged a pair of silver bracelets for new bracelets in the store through the "old for new" activity.

Later, Zhou detected that one of the silver bracelets was a fake, so he immediately contacted Cheng and asked him to return the new bracelet.

Cheng believes that the old bracelet was purchased from the store more than 10 years ago and refused to return it.

The two parties were in a dispute, so Cheng shot a video and uploaded it to a short video platform with the text "A certain gold shop sells fakes and deceives customers".

The number of views of this video is not low, which caused trouble to Zhou.

　　Zhou then went to the court and demanded that Cheng stop infringing on his right of reputation, apologize and compensate for the loss.

The court conducted pre-litigation mediation between the two. Cheng realized that publishing a short video without evidence to prove the objective authenticity of the video he posted would cause adverse effects on the seller, and finally deleted the original video and promised to publish it on the short video platform. Clarified the facts, released an apology message, and compensated for the loss of 600 yuan.

　　The interviewed experts believe that even if they buy defective goods or are unsatisfied with the service and want to expose them through short videos, nothing can be exposed. If they are handled improperly or are suspected of infringement; if businesses find false content in exposed videos, they can sue through legal channels. Exposers.

　　According to Zheng Ning, director of the Law Department of the School of Cultural Industry Management of Communication University of China, consumers have the right to supervise and can supervise and safeguard their rights in accordance with the law, make evaluations, and have the right to share their true experiences and feelings. Legal rights such as reputation rights, privacy rights, and personal information.

　　According to Article 1024 of the Civil Code, civil entities enjoy the right of reputation.

No organization or individual may infringe on the reputation rights of others by insulting, slandering, etc.

Reputation is a social evaluation of the character, prestige, talent, and credit of a civil subject.

　　“Infringement of the seller’s right of reputation is mostly manifested in fabricating and spreading false facts, publishing false content or unfair evaluations, thereby reducing the seller’s goodwill. The core of judging whether the seller’s reputation is infringing on the seller’s reputation The social evaluation of the company is mainly the evaluation of goodwill.” Zheng Ning said that when making infringement judgments, it is necessary to consider the seller’s social influence and popularity, as well as the public’s value trends, industry standards, industry practices, and trading habits. And many other factors.

　　In addition, Zheng Ning also mentioned that privacy is a private life of a natural person and a private space, private activities, and private information that are unwilling to be known to others. Random exposure of chat records may also infringe the privacy and personal information of businesses.

　　"Therefore, if buyers expose themselves on the Internet, they should pay attention to the authenticity of the speech, the objectiveness and impartiality of the evaluation, and do not arbitrarily divulge privacy and personal information." Zheng Ning said.

　　Wang Yanhui, a lawyer at Shanghai Heng Yanda Law Firm, added that the information that can be exposed includes the brand of goods purchased by individuals, product information, payment vouchers that do not disclose personal information, the process of disputes, the process of consultation between consumers and merchants, etc., which do not involve privacy. Information.

False and fabricated information, information related to the privacy of individuals and businesses, and slanderous or violent information cannot be exposed.

　　"Consumers use some speculative language that is inconsistent with the facts in order to achieve their goals, or use insulting or defamatory remarks to vent their anger, or are suspected of infringing on the right of privacy or reputation. In serious cases, they may also constitute a crime of defamation." Wang Yanhui said.

　　So, how should consumers protect their rights in accordance with the law?

　　Zheng Ning suggested that if the rights and interests of consumers are damaged, they can communicate with the operators first. If the two parties cannot reach a settlement, they can call the "12315" hotline or make a complaint through the "12315" platform, request the consumer association to mediate, or the relevant administrative The department handles the case; it can also directly file a lawsuit with the people’s court.

Consumers should keep important vouchers such as contracts, screenshots of orders, purchase invoices, and proper use procedures.

　　Wang Yanhui reminded that if consumers cannot prove that there is a problem with the quality of the product during the process of rights protection, they can apply to the local quality supervision department for appraisal; if the negotiation fails, they must protect their rights through legal means such as litigation, and must not use violence, threats, etc. Solve problems and avoid improper rights safeguarding from taking risks of illegality.