Difficult to interpret the meaning
The ideographic interpretation of emoji is highly subjective and lacks uniform standards, making it difficult for courts to accurately “translate” the true meaning of the parties.
For example, in a housing leasing dispute case in Guangdong, the lessee Liu Moumou, after the expiration of the lease term, faced repeated reminders from the lessor and proposed a willingness to increase the rent. Just replied with a “sun
“Emoji. Later, the two parties disagreed on whether the emoticon represented an agreement to increase the rent. The lessor sued the court and claimed that the lessee agreed to increase the rent, which was supported by the court.
In a personality right dispute, the defendant Ma XX sent multiple “bombs” to Liu XX through WeChat because of a conflict with the plaintiff Liu XX.
” emoji expressing emotions, Liu Moumou thought that the expression was a personal threat, so he sued the court to ask Ma Moumou to apologize, and the two parties reached a settlement under the mediation of the court.
Also, the same emojicell phoneThere will also be display differences in the device, such asappleThe “embarrassed smile” emoji in the IOS system is displayed as “happy laugh” in the Android system, which can easily lead to misunderstandings between the two parties.
Difficulty identifying criminal codes
In some cases of “pornography, gambling and drug” crimes, criminals use emojis instead of sensitive words to express metaphorical meanings to avoid detection.
For example, in a prostitution crime of an organization, prostitutes use “smiley faces”
“Emojis refer to prostitutes who report the number of transactions to the upper line.
Another example is a crime of illegal use of information network. The criminal Pan Moumou has successively created 4 chat groups to promote and sell his homemade rape drugs, aphrodisiac drugs and other prohibited items. Use with buyers in chat groups
and other symbols refer to illegal drugs and trade them.
In addition, some criminals directly use emojis as criminal tools to commit crimes to increase the difficulty of identification and combat.
For example, in a fraud case, under the guise of a Wechat business, the criminals lured victims into adding WeChat friends in the name of lottery and sent a “rock-paper-scissors” emoticon through WeChat to participate in a box-guessing game, and then used cheating software to make the victims mistakenly believe that they had won. , “voluntarily” purchased inferior and fake designer bags, cosmetics, etc. through the so-called “winning low price”, involving more than 900 victims and the case value of more than 7.2 million yuan.
Disagreement on validity
Different courts disagree on whether emojis are evidential. For example, the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court held that in a warehousing contract dispute case, emojis are visual images that assist in expressing mood, emotion and thoughts, and cannot be identified as legal commitments based on emojis alone.
“The expression means agreement.
The Xiamen Intermediate People’s Court held that in a private loan dispute, according to the daily communication habits and chat context, the “OK” sent by the parties
“The emoji shall be deemed consent to the opposing request and shall be judged accordingly.
In addition, there are different interpretations of emoji with neutral meanings.
For example, in a sales contract dispute case, the seller sent the details of the unsettled payment to the buyer through WeChat, and the buyer only replied with the emoticon “Don’t talk”. The court of second instance held that the buyer neither replied nor denied, which should be regarded as an acquiescence to the seller’s claim, and changed the judgment of the first instance.
Kind tips:
Using emojis when chatting online has become an essential input habit for the majority of netizens. Emoji is conducive to the emotional, interesting and simplified online communication, and to a certain extent makes up for the emotional attitude that is difficult to express in words. However, improper or even malicious use of emoji can also lead to negative results, resulting in disputes, infringements and even crimes. and many other legal issues. The Internet is not a place outside the law, and emojis are also used with caution in the online context, so we remind you:
Since there may be multiple interpretations of the meaning of emojis, in online conversations involving vital interests, the key information that expresses attitudes should be expressed in words as much as possible, or emojis that are not easy to cause ambiguity should be selected to clarify the truth of the two parties. to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and disputes. At the same time, pay attention to keeping relevant chat records, so that it can be used for rights protection and evidence after disputes occur.
Online speech must abide by the network ethics and use emojis in good faith. If you abuse the right to freedom of speech, use emojis to insult, slander, or threaten others at will, it will constitute an infringement of the right of reputation of others and bear corresponding legal responsibilities. If the circumstances are serious, even will likely constitute defamation and face severe criminal penalties.
When making or distributing emoticons by yourself, you should pay attention to reasonable boundaries to avoid harming the legitimate rights and interests of others and the social moral order. Without the consent of others, the production of emoticons with the content of others’ portraits may constitute an infringement of others’ portrait rights even if they are not for profit.
In some telecom and network fraud crimes that use emoticons, criminals commit crimes through non-contact means. The criminal methods are novel and hidden, and the harm is serious. Therefore, when facing the temptation of cyberspace, we must be vigilant and beware of being deceived. If you encounter fraud, you should call the police in time to avoid greater losses.
Editor/Bi Lu name
