WeChat Group Admin Kicks Users out From Group May be Sued&Fined?
Nowadays, WeChat is a necessary APP and form of communication in the workplace, especially WeChat groups.
What happens if you get kicked out of the group by the admin? Is it acceptable to take it to court?
But there is a case in Qingdao city, Shandong province, yes, suing is an option.
What’s the story?
On January 22, Liu Kongsheng, a lawyer in Qingdao, was kicked out of a WeChat group. He and the group admin were in an argument over a screenshot from Weibo about police enforcement.
Liu Kongsheng was then kicked out by the admin. After his request for an invite back into the group was denied, he took it to court!
Liu Kongsheng sued his colleague Liu Dezhi, the presiding judge of Pingdu Court and admin of the WeChat group.
He sued Liu Dezhi on the grounds of damaging his rights. He demanded he is invited back into the group, apology for 3 days in the group, and payment of 10,000 RMB for spiritual damage compensation.
Liu Kongsheng said, “I believe he has no right to arbitrarily kick me out, or anyone else out of the group. There are no group regulations in that group and I haven't done anything overboard.”
The dispute was filed in Pingdu municipal people’s court on February 22, 2019.
At present, the “Litigation Service Group” on WeChat has been dissolved by Liu Dezhi as the admin.
Is it necessary to go to court for being kicked out of a group on WeChat?
In recent years, there have been many cases regarding activity on WeChat and QQ groups. Disputes over invite requests, removal from groups.
Xu Xin, a law professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said that if everyone continues to sue for such trivial matters, it will increase the burden within courts and lead to the phenomenon of “lawsuit fatigue”.
Being a group admin is quite risky these days.
Cases, where admins have neglected management, leads to an increase in inappropriate speech and topics by the group members.
Another case appeared where an admin was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and fined 50,000rmb. Mr. Dong, from Fuxin City Liaoning Province, created a WeChat group organizing over 40 users to gamble with red envelopes.
Click to read another article about Warning! He Went to Jail for Being the Admin of a WeChat Group
Why are groups admin penalized?
Group admins hold a supervisor role in WeChat groups, therefore, they are responsible for what happens within the space.
1. Regulatory responsibilities of WeChat group
As the owner and admin of the group, you hold responsibility as a supervisor. Group admins should regulate chat behavior and maintain legality within the content of the group. Group managers should first issue warnings of illegal content or misbehavior and if continued by the same user, their rights are revoked and they will be removed from the group.
2. Group admin's legal liability
Civil liability: the group admin shall not bear civil liability with group members who publish improper content due to fault if they stop the group members from publishing content that infringes upon others' legitimate rights and interests in time. Otherwise, joint and several liabilities may be assumed.
Public security punishment: for the illegal content not enough for criminal punishment issued by group members, group manager may face common public security punishment if they fail to perform the supervision duty.
Criminal responsibility: if the group members are suspected of committing a crime, if they do not exercise supervision duties and allow the group members to break the law and commit a crime, subjectively, it may constitute indirect intention, thus forming a joint crime with the group members involved in the crime. The so-called indirect intention is the psychological attitude that indicates that one's behavior may cause harm to society and is intentionally left alone, leading to the occurrence of such a result.
Remember, if you are a group admin, make sure to post group rules in the WeChat group notice and regulate content as to avoid punishment. Also, we should all be aware of our actions and what we are posting within groups.
Are you a group admin?
Have you had an interesting experience with inappropriate behavior from users?
Share with us below!
Source: People's daily
Editor: Crystal Huang
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