In recent years, in order to eliminate negative information on the internet, some enterprises and individuals have spared no effort to delete posts, giving rise to the gray industry of "paid post deletion" on the internet. Recently, the Intermediate People's Court of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, tried a dispute over a commission contract for a media company to provide online post deletion services and demand payment of service fees. The second instance judgment confirmed that the post deletion service agreement was invalid, and issued a civil sanction decision, confiscating 300000 yuan of post deletion service fees. The media company seeks to recover the "service fee" for deleted posts. S Group is a large modern enterprise group with multiple listed and holding companies, and issues stocks, funds, and bonds. In 2018, information such as "S Group's asset management plan default", "S Group's bond default", and "S Group collapsed" appeared on the internet, which had a negative impact on S Group. In order to handle the aforementioned negative public opinion information, S Brand Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of S Group, has signed a "Network Public Opinion Management Agreement" with Y Media Company, which mainly stipulates that Y Media Company accepts the commission of S Brand Company to delete and block negative information related to S Group displayed on the computer and mobile terminals of a certain internet platform by appealing or contacting customer service on the user feedback page of the platform, S brand company pays service fees based on the actual amount of information processed. During the performance of the contract, S brand company paid a total service fee of 300000 yuan to Y media company. Later, Y Media Company sent a "reminder letter" to S Brand Company, stating that a total of 1.325 million yuan of service fees were incurred based on the completion of the workload. However, due to unsuccessful reminders, they filed a lawsuit with the Yuhuatai District People's Court in Nanjing, demanding payment of the service fees. S brand company believes that according to Article 9 of the "Regulations on Community Service Management of Internet Forums" issued by the National Cyberspace Administration, internet forum practitioners are not allowed to seek illegitimate benefits by deleting information or intervening in the presentation of results. The company believes that although the "Network Public Opinion Management Agreement" involved in the case was signed in the name of network public opinion management, it was actually agreed that Y Media Company would provide S Brand Company with paid deletion information service, namely "paid deletion post" service. This behavior not only infringes on the public's right to know and the media's supervision right, but also interferes with market economic order, damages social public interests, violates public order and good customs, and should be considered an invalid contract, Therefore, S brand company does not need to continue fulfilling the contract, nor does it need to pay Y media company for the deletion service fee. At the same time, after the contract becomes invalid, the property obtained from the contract should be returned. Therefore, Y Media Company has no legal basis for charging service fees, and therefore counterclaims for a refund of 300000 yuan for post deletion service fees. The first instance judgment of Yuhuatai District Court confirmed the invalidity of the service agreement signed by both parties, rejected the lawsuit request of Y Media Company, and ruled that a certain media company would refund 300000 yuan in post deletion service fee. Y Media Company appealed to the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court against the first instance judgment. The agreement is invalid and the service fee for deleting posts has been collected. After review, the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court found that Y Media Company eliminated negative information related to S Group and charged a service fee by appealing to an internet platform without reviewing the relevant information. Some of the deleted information belonged to network users
Edit：Ying Ying Responsible editor：Zhou Shu
Source：rmfyb.chinacourt.org
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