作为常用的即时通讯工具，微信已成为了每个人日常生活中的必备，发表情包交流也成为了每个人日常生活的必备技能。然而谁又曾想到，如果不慎使用表情符号，很有可能让你染上“牢狱”之灾。
文 | 新浪科技 周文猛
编辑 | 韩大鹏
划重点：
微信表情本身并无对错，但是在不同场景下，它的含义并不相同。律师指出，如果有聊天记录的上下文作为依托，那么表情就可以起到与文字相当的作用。
据中国裁判文书网，2018年以来，全国共有158起以表情符号作为证据的案件，其中2018年8件、2019年23件、2020年66件、2021年61件。随着表情符号开始成为司法认定程序中的“证据”，如何审慎地使用表情包，正在成为一门“艺术活儿”。
滥用“太阳”和“猜拳”，当事人被认定“违法”
近日，江苏高院发布文章指出，大众日常使用的微信“点赞”、“OK”以及“太阳”等表情包，已被写入法院判决书，成为支撑法院立案并审核的“证据”。消息一出，瞬间引发外界关注，话题#微信表情符号写入判决书#也快速登上微博热搜，引发广泛讨论。
众多网友纷纷表示，“那以后‘打你’的表情，是不是能在法律上构成了威胁？‘狗头’是否又意味着嘲讽呢？”
据江苏高院介绍，在广东地区一起房屋租赁纠纷案中，承租方刘某在租赁期满后，面对出租方多次提醒、提出加租意愿，既不表示继续承租，也不表示搬离案涉房屋，只是回复了一个“太阳”表情符号。后双方就该表情是否代表达成加租合意产生分歧，出租方起诉至法院并据此主张承租方同意加租，得到了法院的支持。
另有浙江省桐庐县人民法院出具的(2019)浙0122刑初371号刑事判决书显示，被告人张某某谎称搞粉丝福利活动，以发布虚假粉丝中奖信息派送大奖的名义，让被害人用微信表情符号玩猜拳，并通过作弊软件控制猜拳结果的方式实施诈骗。最终该行为被法院侦破，并给予相应制裁。
此外，去年10月，宁夏青铜峡市公安局接到群众举报，有人在微信群里面发送侮辱人民警察的信息。经查，违法嫌疑人李某因对小区疫情管控不满，在微信群发了一张侮辱人民警察的照片，公然对警察的形象进行侮辱。经讯问，李某对在微信群内侮辱人民警察的违法事实供认不讳。李某的行为已构成寻衅滋事，根据治安管理处罚法规定，予以行政拘留九日处罚。
滥用表情包如何量刑？律师：需结合聊天语境认定
一系列案件中，在什么情况下滥用表情包，能被认定为违法违法犯罪？并被量刑？
在陕西恒达律师事务所高级合伙人赵良善看来，日常生活中，微信表情包主要是帮助情感表达，丰富聊天体验，特定表情包如果单列出来并没有法律意义，但是如果有聊天记录的上下文作为依托，那么就可以起到与文字相当的作用。
另有北京京师（天津）律师事务所冯帅对新浪科技表示，“我们在日常使用中，应当以社会普通大众的认知为评判标准，根据使用的场合、使用时前后文的逻辑、受众的对象、一般使用时对方可能出现的反应等综合评估。”
“表情符号本身并无对错，是每个人人为地赋予了它意义，一千个观众就有一千个哈默雷特。”冯帅进一步指出，滥用表情包如何鉴定违法或者犯罪，还需要结合当事人对被侵害人所造成的伤害来衡量。
根据刑法的谦抑性原则，违法行为通常指的是社会危害性不大的行为，如果情节显著轻微危害不大的，不应认为是犯罪。“但如果发生侵犯国家利益与社会公共利益、侵犯公民人身权利与财产权利、其他危害社会的行为，则应当受刑罚处罚的行为。”
道德是内心的法律，应善意使用表情包
随着一桩桩的违法乃至于犯罪案件最终被法院侦破，因滥用表情包而为他人生活乃至于经济利益造成影响的人，也正在受到来自法律的制裁。然而，滥用表情包的行为并未就此停下。
网络上，部分“黄赌毒”犯罪案件中，犯罪分子利用表情符号替代敏感词表达隐喻含义以逃避侦查。一些犯罪分子通过创建网络聊天群，宣传和出售其自制的迷奸药、催情药等违禁物品，同时为了逃避公安机关的侦查和打击，在聊天群内与买家使用“糖果”“酒杯”等符号代指违禁药品并进行交易。另有一些组织卖淫人员，还以“笑脸”表情符号代指嫖娼人员，向上线报送交易数量。
微信自身的表情包之外，一些网络创作者通过PS、动画设计等软件，主动生产并传播大量的网络恶搞表情包，其中不乏侵害他人肖像权或相关方名誉权行为。
2022年北京冬季奥运会期间，吉祥物“冰墩墩”走红网络，为加快实现消费者们“一户一墩”的需要，一些厂商开始自制并手动DIY冰墩墩。期间，将“冰墩墩”改编成漫画形象、表情包并在网上传播，丑化并恶搞“冰墩墩”，等行为屡屡引发外界关注。并进一步侵犯了“冰墩墩”的改编权、信息网络传播权乃至于保护作品完整权。
事实上，无论是微信表情包，还是一些网络形象或IP内容，其中有部分都已经申请了知识产权保护，通过PS等技术方式恶搞表情包，也可能涉及侵犯这些表情包本身的知识产权。
法律是成文的道德，道德是内心的法律。在冯帅看来，我们不仅要遵守法律的规定，更要对自身有道德等中华传统美德的要求。“在网络发言等行为活动中，要善意生产并使用表情符号，注意合理界限，避免给他人合法权益、社会道德秩序带来伤害。”
Article | Zhou Wenmeng of Sina Technology
Editor | Han Dapeng
Highlight:
Wechat expression itself is not right or wrong, but in different scenes, its meaning is not the same. The lawyer pointed out that if there is a chat context as a basis, then facial expressions can play the same role as words.
Since 2018, there have been 158 cases using emoticons as evidence, including 8 in 2018, 23 in 2019, 66 in 2020 and 61 in 2021, according to the China referee Writing Network. As emoticons begin to become “evidence” in judicial procedures, how to use emojis cautiously is becoming an “art job”.
Abusing “sun” and “fist guessing”, the party concerned is found to be “illegal”
Emojis such as “like”, “OK” and “Sun” used by the public on Wechat have been written into court judgments and become “evidence” to support the court’s filing and examination, according to an article released by the Jiangsu High Court. As soon as the news came out, it immediately attracted the attention of the outside world, and the topic # Wechat emoji was written into the judgment # and quickly uploaded to Weibo, causing extensive discussion.
Many netizens said one after another, “after that, can the expression of ‘hit you’ pose a legal threat? Does’ dog head ‘mean sarcasm? “
According to the Jiangsu High Court, in a housing rental dispute in Guangdong, the lessee Liu repeatedly reminded the lessor of his willingness to increase the rent after the lease expired, which did not mean that he would continue to lease or move out of the house involved in the case. just replied to a “sun” emoji. Later, the two sides disagreed on whether the expression represented an agreement to increase the rent, and the lessor sued to the court and argued that the lessee agreed to increase the rent, which was supported by the court.
In addition, according to the (2019) Criminal judgment No. 371 issued by the people’s Court of Tonglu County, Zhejiang Province, the defendant Zhang falsely claimed to engage in fan welfare activities in the name of publishing false fan winning information to distribute the jackpot, let the victim play fist guessing with Wechat emoticons, and commit fraud by controlling the result of fist guessing by cheating software. In the end, the act was detected by the court and given corresponding sanctions.
In addition, in October last year, the Ningxia Qingtongxia Public Security Bureau received a report from the public that someone sent insulting messages to the people’s police in the WeChat group. After investigation, because the illegal suspect Li was dissatisfied with the control of the epidemic in the community, he sent a photo insulting the people’s police in the WeChat group, openly insulting the image of the police. After interrogation, Li confessed to the illegal facts of insulting the people’s police in the WeChat group. Li’s behavior has constituted provocation and stirred up trouble, and he was punished by administrative detention for nine days in accordance with the provisions of the Public Security Administration punishment Law.
How to measure the penalty for the abuse of memes? Lawyer: it needs to be determined in the context of chat.
In a series of cases, under what circumstances can the abuse of emojis be considered illegal and criminal? And sentenced?
In the view of Zhao Liangshan, a senior partner of Shaanxi Hengda Law firm, Wechat emojis mainly help express emotions and enrich the chat experience in daily life. There is no legal significance for specific emojis to be listed separately, but if they are supported by the context of chat transcripts, they can play a role equivalent to words.
In addition, Feng Shuai, a Beijing Capital (Tianjin) law firm, told Sina Science and Technology, “in our daily use, we should be judged by the cognition of the general public.” according to the occasion of use, the logic of the text before and after the use, the object of the audience, the reaction that the other party may have during general use, and so on. “
“there is nothing right or wrong about the emoji itself. it is everyone who gives it meaning, and there are a thousand Hamelets for a thousand viewers.” Feng Shuai further pointed out that how to identify illegal or criminal misuse of emojis also needs to be measured in the light of the harm caused by the parties to the victim.
According to the principle of modesty in criminal law, illegal acts usually refer to acts that do little harm to society, and should not be regarded as crimes if the circumstances are significantly minor and harmless. “however, if acts that infringe upon the interests of the state and social and public interests, infringe upon citizens’ personal and property rights, and other acts that endanger society, they shall be subject to criminal punishment.”
Morality is the inner law, and emojis should be used in good faith.
With a series of illegal and even criminal cases finally solved by the court, people who live for others and even economic interests due to the abuse of emojis are also being punished by the law. However, the abuse of emojis has not stopped there.
On the Internet, in some cases of “pornography, gambling and drugs” crimes, criminals use emoticons instead of sensitive words to express metaphorical meanings in order to evade investigation. By creating online chat groups, some criminals publicize and sell their self-made rape drugs, aphrodisiac and other prohibited items, and at the same time, in order to evade detection and attack by the public security organs, in the chat group, they use symbols such as “candy” and “wine glasses” to refer to illegal drugs and trade them. Other prostitutes organize prostitutes and refer to prostitutes with “smiley faces” emoticons, reporting the number of transactions online.
In addition to Wechat’s own memes, some network creators actively produce and spread a large number of online parody emojis through PS, animation design and other software, including acts that infringe upon the portrait rights of others or the reputation rights of related parties.
During the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the mascot “ice pier” became popular on the Internet. In order to speed up the realization of consumers’ need of “one house, one pier”, some manufacturers began to make and manually DIY ice piers. During this period, “Bingdun Pier” was adapted into cartoon images, memes and spread on the Internet, vilified and parodied, and other behaviors repeatedly attracted the attention of the outside world. And further infringe upon the right of adaptation of “ice pier”, the right of information network dissemination and even the right to protect the integrity of the work.
In fact, whether it is Wechat emojis, or some online images or IP content, some of them have applied for intellectual property protection. Parody of emojis through PS and other technology may also involve infringement of the intellectual property rights of these emojis themselves.
The law is the written morality, and the morality is the inner law. In Feng Shuai’s view, we should not only abide by the provisions of the law, but also have the requirements of morality and other Chinese traditional virtues. “in online speaking and other behavioral activities, we should produce and use emoticons in good faith, pay attention to reasonable boundaries, and avoid harming the legitimate rights and interests of others and social moral order.”
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