In late June, Chongqing Business Media Group Co., Ltd. officially issued an apology statement to TRON founder Justin Sun on the People’s Court Announcement Website. This marked the end of a two-year defamation lawsuit filed by Sun against the media group, with Sun emerging as the victor and the media group issuing the apology.
Although justice was slightly delayed, and it is difficult to quantify and seek compensation for the damage to Sun’s reputation over the past two years, this outcome will still have a certain restraining and warning effect on the spread of subsequent rumors. For the Web3 industry, which has long been criticized, this ruling once again proves that “Web3 is not a lawless place” and helps to urge information service practitioners to “speak with evidence,” thereby building a more responsible and healthy information dissemination environment.
Case Review
The specific details of the case are as follows. On March 11, 2022, the “Business” media account under Chongqing Business Media Group published a video titled “FBI Investigating Justin Sun, Suspected of Insider Trading” on the Oriental Fortune Network and Oriental Fortune App. In April, the company published an article titled “A 90s Targeted by the FBI” in the “Business” magazine.
In the aforementioned video and article, the company used insulting and defamatory language without conducting an investigation, accusing Sun of “organizing a market-making team,” “suspected of insider trading,” “evading ICO bans and fleeing abroad,” “suspected of fraud,” “money laundering,” “evading legal sanctions,” and claiming that “the US Internal Revenue Service and FBI are investigating.” These defamatory statements in “Business” originated from an article titled “THE MANY ESCAPES OF JUSTIN SUN” published by the US magazine “The Verge” on March 9, 2022, written by Christopher Harland-Dunaway. However, “The Verge” clearly stated in the original article that the US Securities and Exchange Commission, responsible for prosecuting securities fraud, refused to comment on the content, and the US Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the US Southern District of New York Attorney’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.
More importantly, before the “Business” published the article and video, Sun himself responded to the allegations in “The Verge” on March 10, 2022, in both Chinese and English, calling it a rumor. In this context, Chongqing Business Media Group neither contacted “The Verge” for confirmation nor could reach the US FBI and other agencies. Despite Sun’s denial, they still published the article and video without verification.
In response, Sun entrusted Beijing Wei Heng Law Firm to file a defamation lawsuit against Chongqing Business Media Group. After a summary trial on March 22, 2023, and a public hearing on September 20, 2023, the Chongqing Yubei District People’s Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, Sun, based on Article 1,024 of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China, which states that “no organization or individual shall infringe upon others’ reputation rights through insults, defamation, and other means.” The court ordered the defendant, Chongqing Business Media Group Co., Ltd., to implement the following rulings:
– Delete the video titled “FBI Investigating Justin Sun, Suspected of Insider Trading” published on March 11, 2022, on the Oriental Fortune App within three days after the judgment takes effect.
– Publish a public apology statement to the plaintiff, Justin Sun, in national newspapers within 30 days after the judgment takes effect.
– Compensate the plaintiff, Justin Sun, for the notarization fee of 519.37 yuan within 15 days after the judgment takes effect.
Sun’s Suffering from Rumors
Public figures being targeted by rumors is common in the Web3, internet, and traditional industries. Shortly after Sun’s case, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao also filed a lawsuit against the Chinese version producer of Bloomberg Businessweek, Hong Kong Media Modern Communications Company, for defamation in the High Court of Hong Kong on July 25, 2022. If we look at a broader industry perspective, we will find that many well-known figures, including Liu Qiangdong and Wang Jianlin, have been plagued by rumors and had to resort to legal means to fight back.
As one of the most influential public figures in the Web3 industry, Sun has been surrounded by various rumors. The reasons behind this can be attributed to the fact that the Web3 industry is still emerging, with an imperfect regulatory framework and an unfavorable public opinion environment, which naturally leads many people to have a biased view of the industry. Additionally, Sun’s personal social media interaction style, characterized by humor and jokes, makes him an easier target compared to more serious public figures, providing an opportunity for malicious actors.
However, these reasons can only be considered as contributing factors, but they should never be an excuse for spreading rumors. In any rule of law system, spreading rumors is a malicious act of defamation that cannot be tolerated, as it causes irreparable and immeasurable damage to the reputation of the victim.
Even in the face of such negative impact, Sun has mostly adopted an attitude of “the innocent will be vindicated,” at most responding to rumors through his personal social media accounts and rarely resorting to legal action like in the case against Chongqing Business Media Group.
Web3 is not a lawless place, and in any modern legal system, spreading rumors is not allowed and cannot be tolerated.
The First Step to Purify the Web3 Public Opinion Environment
So why did Sun choose to come forward this time, even though he knew it would consume a considerable amount of time, energy, and legal costs, and there is a possibility of resurrecting old rumors in the market’s memory? The answer lies in Sun’s hope that through his personal victory, the public opinion environment of Web3 can take a significant step towards purification.
Looking back at the final judgment against the defendant, you will find that the defendant only needs to compensate the plaintiff with a notarization fee of 519.37 yuan, ignoring the higher costs claimed by the plaintiff, such as “economic losses,” “spiritual damages compensation,” and “litigation expenses,” and requiring the plaintiff to bear 10,310.24 yuan out of the 10,440.24 yuan in case acceptance fees, while the defendant only needs to bear 130 yuan.
It is not difficult to imagine that this compensation amount is far less than the expenses incurred by Sun in this lawsuit, not to mention the unquantifiable cost of time. However, even so, Sun still chose to firmly defend his rights.
The most crucial part of the ruling is that the defendant must delete false information and issue a public apology statement, allowing all readers to witness the exposure of the defendant’s defamation. For media service providers, this is the true and significant punishment, warning industry practitioners to fulfill their obligation of source verification before publishing content, thereby purifying the malicious public opinion environment that has long surrounded the Web3 industry.
Web3 is not a lawless place, and in any modern rule of law system, spreading rumors is not allowed and cannot be tolerated.
