Case Overview

Xiao Li is the owner of a certain community, and Xiao Zhang is the head of the owner committee, responsible for managing the owner's WeChat group on a daily basis. One day, Xiao Li posted a message on the owner's WeChat group condemning the property management company, feeling that the service quality was low. Some other owners felt that the property management had always provided good service, and it was Xiao Li who was causing trouble for no reason. Therefore, Xiao Li argued with multiple owners in the group and began to insult them. As an administrator, Xiaozhang kicked Xiaoli out of the group chat upon seeing this. Xiao Li was dissatisfied and repeatedly requested to rejoin the group, but was not approved. Xiao Li felt that Xiao Zhang had abused his authority as a manager and caused himself to lose face in front of other homeowners. Therefore, he sued and demanded that Xiao Zhang restore his membership in the homeowner's WeChat group, apologize and compensate 2000 yuan for mental damages.

Lawyer analysis

Before discussing whether group owners have an obligation to restore group membership, it is necessary to first understand two concepts, namely civil legal acts and friendly acts. The so-called civil legal act is an act that establishes a relationship of rights and obligations between both parties, and both parties are bound by their rights and obligations, such as buying and selling, borrowing and lending, etc. However, in our daily lives, not every action belongs to civil legal acts. There is also a type of social interaction called "friendship behavior". Friendship behavior is the act of providing material or service to others without compensation, with the aim of enhancing personal friendship or based on good customs. For example, taking a bus to the station to wake up a sleeping passenger, helping others guide the way, and so on. The perpetrator is not bound by the law as a result, therefore pure acts of friendship do not fall within the scope of legal constraints.

The chat group was born in the Internet era. It is a speech release and affairs discussion platform established by citizens through the Internet based on a specific social relationship, or a common demand, or a common hobby and other reasons. Its establishment has the nature of spontaneous autonomy agreed by members. The joining and leaving of the group between the group leader and group members is a kind of friendship behavior. Whether the members of the WeChat group choose to join the group, whether they are willing to comply with the rules of the WeChat group, and whether they are accepted by the WeChat group should belong to the category of social interaction. This behavior does not create a civil legal relationship, so there is no need for civil law intervention.

According to the Regulations on the Management of Internet Group Information Service, the group builder or administrator should standardize the network behavior and information release within the group, and build a civilized and orderly network group space. The administrator's removal of members who he/she thinks are inappropriate from group chat is the application of the autonomous rules of "who builds the group is responsible" and "who manages the group is responsible" in Internet groups, which does not create civil legal relations. Therefore, cases requiring the restoration of group membership are not within the scope of civil litigation accepted by people's courts. The court ultimately dismissed Xiao Li's lawsuit.

Of course, it should be noted that although the management of joining and leaving WeChat groups belongs to social behavior, it is still necessary to avoid the fault of social behavior leading to infringement. For example, insulting others and damaging their reputation within WeChat groups may result in legal liability.