When emojis become 'evidence'
In recent years, the number of cases in which WeChat emoticons have become evidence for legal judgments has increased; more than half of criminal cases involving emojis on Judgment Document Network involve pornography, gambling and drugs
On July 19, a reporter from the Beijing News used "emoji" as a key word to search online Chinese judicial documents and found a total of 281 legal documents.
Screenshot of China Judgment Documents Network
Recently, the WeChat official account of "Jiangsu High Court" released a message entitled "Attention!
Every emoji you send has the potential to become an article on "Courtesy Evidence"", and then "WeChat Emoji Written in Judgment" became a hot search on the Internet.
In recent years, emojis in WeChat chats have increasingly become evidence for legal adjudication.
A reporter from the Beijing News used "emoji" as a keyword to search the Internet of Chinese judicial documents and found a total of 281 legal documents.
Among them, Guangdong, Beijing and Jiangsu have the most legal documents.
In terms of time, the number of legal documents increased sharply after 2018.
On July 19, the reporter found that among the 281 documents, more than 71% were civil cases, and about 24% were criminal cases.
The most frequent keyword in the cases is "contract", and the cause of action in more than half of the cases involves "contract, management without cause, disputes over unjust enrichment".
Attorney Qian Wanglong, a partner of Beijing Dongwei Law Firm, told the Beijing News reporter that since public-to-public communication is often conducted in more formal forms such as emails and letters, cases in which emojis are used as trial evidence generally occur between natural persons and among natural persons.
Zhou Chunxiao, assistant judge of Jiangsu Kunshan Court, said in an interview with a reporter from the Beijing News that neutral emojis, such as "embarrassment", are more likely to cause controversy in interpretation.
Since there is no clear text explaining the specific meaning of the "embarrassing" emoji, the judge can either find it as a denial or as a default.
In the legal documents related to the emoji on Judg.com, in addition to the emoji that means "embarrassment", the emoji "OK" also frequently appears. The emoji corresponding to "like" or "stick" are also more often part of the evidence in the case.
Emoji used as criminal code in criminal cases
According to the case files listed on the Judgment Documents Network, in criminal cases, emoji are often used as criminal passwords.
More than half of the criminal cases involving emojis on the Judgment Document Online are pornographic, gambling or drug-related cases.
In 2020, in the case of organizing prostitution, which was decided by the Yuhang District Court in Hangzhou, the smiling face in WeChat became a counter for the number of times of prostitution.
According to the testimony of many prostitutes in the case, the prostitution organizers asked the prostitutes to send him a smiley face every time they prostituted. reconciliation.
In a drug-related case, the suspect in a certain case, Du Moumou, used the emoji of "skirt" to refer to marijuana in WeChat chat.
According to the judgment document of the Beijing Fourth Intermediate People's Court, Du Moumou purchased a new drug LSD (a semi-artificial hallucinogen) from an overseas seller through WeChat, which constituted the crime of drug smuggling.
The judgment document mentioned that Du Moumou smoked marijuana in addition to LSD, and with the marijuana supplier, "the pattern of 'skirt' appeared many times in the WeChat chat, and they talked about the process of purchasing 'skirt' and how to hand over the goods. ."
In the drug trafficking case heard by the Sichuan Leshan Court in 2020, the defendant Zhang would first send the word "prepare" and the emoji of "money" when trading with the buyer, and then put the drugs near a trash can, and then put the garbage The photo of the barrel is sent to the buyer for the buyer to pick up the goods.
Emojis are more controversial in civil cases
Compared with the relatively clear meaning and clear determination of emoji in criminal cases, in civil cases, the interpretation of the meaning of emoji is more controversial.
According to the file on the Judgment Documents Network, in a case of disputes over a sales contract in Jiangsu, the defendant company purchased non-woven fabrics from the plaintiff company. , replied with an "OK" emoji.
The plaintiff later brought the defendant to court because the defendant owed money.
At the court, the plaintiff and the defendant disagreed on whether this "OK" signified that they agreed with the account statement or just that they had received the news.
According to the video of the China Court Trial Public Network, the defense lawyer of the defendant in the first trial said that the "OK" emoji sent by Bao Moumou "does not mean that the statement is confirmed and has no objection, but will go to the statement of Statistics and accounting." Bao Moumou also came to the court during the second trial of the first trial, and explained the "OK" emoji as "(even) OK, I have to check it."
In the second trial, the company's defense lawyer, Beijing Guozhi Law Firm's lawyer Kou Yanfang told the Beijing News reporter that there are many figures in the statement, and it takes a long time to check, but there is almost no time difference in Bao Moumou's reply. Reply in seconds or a minute, so just a polite reply.
In the end, the judge found that the "OK" emoji had a default meaning.
The judge wrote in the judgment document that Bao Moumou replied with an "OK" expression to confirm after receiving the statement, and the defendant company did not raise any objection to the plaintiff company on the statement after that.
The judge also mentioned that the statement was supported by an invoice and a VAT invoice.
There are also other cases in which the judge does not believe that "OK" has the meaning of approval.
Zhou Chunxiao published "Attention!
Every emoji you send has the potential to become “evidence in court”” mentioned in the article, “For example, in a warehouse contract dispute case held by the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court, emojis are visual images that assist in expressing moods, emotions and thoughts. , cannot be identified as a legal commitment based on the emoji alone, so the 'OK' emoji sent by the parties is not determined to mean consent."
Similar to the meaning determination of the "OK" emoji is the interpretation of emojis such as "like" or "stick."
A case of housing contract disputes in the Urumqi Tianshan Court on the Judgment Documents showed that the bathroom maintenance fee involved involved the dispute over emojis between the two parties.
The legal documents show that the plaintiff, who is a renter, repaired the toilet, bathroom heater and faucet in the bathroom by himself after he moved into the house, and paid a maintenance fee of 260 yuan. After that, the plaintiff told the defendant on WeChat: "I have already done all the work yesterday. Once it’s done, I found someone from a hardware store and spent 260 to fix the toilet, shower, and water pipes in the bathroom.” The defendant replied with the emoji “Awesome”.
In court, the two sides disputed whether the "stick" signified approval of the repair costs.
The plaintiff claimed that the "stick" sent by the defendant indicated that the defendant was willing to pay the fee of 260 yuan, while the defendant claimed that he did not agree.
The judge found that this "stick" does not mean that the parties are willing to bear the cost.
The judge wrote in the document: "The defendant's reply with the 'stick' emoji is not a sign of consent, and the plaintiff did not provide evidence to prove that the defendant's sending of the 'stick' emoji was a sign of consent. Therefore, the plaintiff's claim that the defendant should bear the fee lacks facts. and legal basis, this court does not support it.”
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Determining the meaning of expression evidence depends on context and convention
Zhou Chunxiao said that the identification of the meaning of emoji should be combined with the entire chat record.
Qian Wanglong also mentioned that the reason for the different interpretations of the same emoji is that no court can make a judgment based on the expression alone, but must combine the comprehensive meaning of the context of the chat record, and at the same time Make judgments in accordance with the custom or trading habits of both parties or the industry.
For example, Qian Wanglong said, for example, someone replies with a "smile" emoji and pays every time after the other party ships it, then he can't say "smile" after a certain reply to "smile" to mean no payment.
"You can't make a statement contrary to the expression after the fact."
Both Qian Wanglong and Zhou Chunxiao also mentioned that emoji evidence is usually only a part of all evidence, and the direction of a case is rarely completely determined by emoji.
"From our legal point of view, we must judge the facts of this case and the application of the law through comprehensive and all-round evidence," Qian Wanglong said. Whether the obligations are complied with, to judge the responsibility of both parties for breach of contract. It is not a single expression, so this case will be judged. "
Qian Wanglong put forward the following suggestions: First, try to use formal communication channels, including emails, and try to use accurate, true, and complete text; This is not easy to produce ambiguity; third, the whole process of the transaction process should be left behind to avoid ambiguity caused by a single expression.
Zhou Chunxiao also suggested that when chatting, you should keep a complete chat record. If you chat by voice, then once a dispute arises, you need to use the original chat record carrier to play the voice in court.
Beijing News reporter Qi Xin