Chinese film star Fan Bingbing awarded US$22,500 over online slurs
- Actress, who was ordered to pay US$129 million after tax evasion investigation last year, wins case against social media user who accused her of engaging in ‘improper sexual relationships’
- Social media posts ‘denigrated Fan’s character and lowered her social status’, court says
Chinese actress Fan Bingbing has been awarded 161,500 yuan (US$22,500) in compensation after winning a lawsuit against a man who accused her on social media of sexual impropriety.
Beijing Chaoyang District People’s Court ruled in Fan’s favour on Monday, ordering Chen, who uses the screen name Qinling Eryue, to pay the compensation and publish an apology to the actress on the front page of his Weibo account for seven days.
Chen, who has almost 2.5 million followers on Weibo, published multiple defamatory comments about Fan between July 2018 and January, the statement said.
It cited the court as saying that the posts – which identified Fan by name, photographs and references to characters she has played on screen – left the public with the impression she was of “loose moral conduct”.
