How companies can fight back against online defamation

Foreign companies are suffering defamation in China in vast numbers. Virulent online criticism is widely believed, widely circulated, and can hurt sales and reputations. The dairy industry, pharmaceutical companies, the motor trade and food importers have all suffered. Despite the many victims, few companies know what to do about it. This article does not look at how to bring defamation lawsuits in China, but at recent amendments to the PRC Criminal Law (中华人民共和国刑法), which strengthens existing provisions dealing with criminal defamation. Defamation victims are entitled to make complaints to the police. This is not purely theoretical, as complaints to the police have been made and while actual prosecutions are rare, other forms of police response can be sufficient to stop the infraction more efficiently than the slower civil procedure. Lying bloggers are not afraid of lawsuits, but they do fear the police.

This article also analyses the recent Interpretation issued by the Supreme People's Court (SPC) and the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP). The Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Law in Handling Cases of Using Information Networks to Commit Defamation and Other such Criminal Offences (关于办理利用信息网络实施诽谤等刑事案件适用法律若干问题的解释) was issued on September 6 2013 and became effective on September 10. The Interpretation has only 10 articles but has become widely known in China for its 5,000 clicks rule – the 5,000 click threshold for online defamation to become a criminal matter.