The Haidian District People's Court in Beijing has ordered on June 25, Thursday, two high-profile social media personalities, who have been involved in an online slanging match over the issue of genetically modified (GM) food, to pay damages and publicly apologize to each other.
The Beijing court also ordered both Fang Shimin, a U.S.-educated biochemist and anti-fraud campaigner, more popularly known by his online name Fang Zhouzi, and former China Central Television host Cui Yongyuan, to remove defamatory online posts as well as pay 45,000 yuan ($7,250) in damages.
The report said that the court in April accepted the case filed by Fang against Cui in Jan. 2014 over the debate on genetically modified (GM) food. The verdict on the case was issued on June 25, Thursday afternoon, after a hearing was conducted in the morning.
The quarrel between the two extended for more than two years, which degenerated into personal insults, as the public debate also extended from the issue of GM food safety to civilized online behavior.
According to the court ruling, Cui and Fang had defamed each other's reputations since the time the online squabble started in Sept. 2013.
The court said that the posts would not have violated their reputation rights had they been factual, even if strongly worded and since the accusations were not supported by evidence, the courts ruled that the posts were illegal and ordered removed.
Cui released a documentary in March 2014 in which he said that even though Americans had been eating GM food for years, few know about the technology or what it was doing to them.
Fang, a controversial U.S.-educated biochemist, started to promote domestic GM food on the Internet in 2013.
The court said that although the two celebrities can debate an issue of public concern, it did not mean that the freedom of speech would protect them from hurling malicious personal attacks against each other.
An expert from the Ministry of Agriculture said that the debate between the two only made the public more divided and confused.
A survey in March 2014 on huanqiu.com showed that 72 percent of respondents think GM food is unsafe, while 22.5 percent were unsure about it. Only 4.8 percent believed GM food is safe.
Another survey conducted by Sina Weibo in 2013 showed that over 50 percent of over 4,000 participants were unsure of the safety of GM food.
Both Cui and Fang said on June 25 that they will appeal the court ruling.
Fang told the media after the hearing that the court's decision is unacceptable to him, as he only wanted to disseminate knowledge about GM technology and to correct misinformation spread by Cui and others.
On his Sina Weibo account on June 25, Cui described Fang as a "rogue."