Chapter 92: Chapter 92: Exorbitant Litigation Costs!
Looking at this private message, Qin Mu was somewhat speechless, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.
The comment section now had thousands of comments blasting him.
Even if he were extremely formidable... there was no way he could out-argue this horde of self-righteous netizens. However... he could actually have all these people locked up.
Moreover, at this stage, the video released by Takeout Xiao Liang was going viral, with more and more self-righteous netizens joining the fray.
He didn’t want to alert them prematurely. He only wanted to quietly monitor the comment section to see which other prominent figures would emerge.
Defamation and insult are always private prosecution offenses. The severity of the offense would be determined by factors such as the scope and intensity of its dissemination, and the degree of the insults. The more viral the video, the heavier the sentence for these trolls would be.
Of course, hiring click farms to inflate video likes was inadvisable. If these practices were discovered in subsequent judicial proceedings, they would be deemed false evidence, which would backfire and prevent the trolls from being sentenced. Everything... had to rely on genuine data to get these people locked up.
As for the private messages from these fans, he didn’t reply.
Revealing too much could startle them prematurely, affecting the performance of the "new stars" in the comment section.
Currently, the top comment had already amassed 20,000 likes.
In another day, who knew which dark horse might charge out from the pack and take the lead.
「Meanwhile.」
「In Zizhou,」
within a high-end residential area, Qing Lan, a broadcaster with hundreds of thousands of followers on a certain platform, was holding her phone, tapping continuously on the screen, furiously typing. She displayed the formidable keyboard warrior skills of a seasoned MOBA player.
However, the opposition was numerous and had already seized the moral high ground with sympathy, empathy, and conscience-shaming. Their firepower was fierce. She and her stream followers had launched several offensives, only to be utterly routed by the opposition.
"Sister Lan, I can’t take it anymore! I’m done arguing. They’re too vicious! If I keep this up, they’ll curse my mom to death!"
"Their firepower is too strong! I was just about to reason with them, and they immediately started insulting my ancestors!"
"You got off easy! I just replied, ’Why should we sympathize with the delivery guy?’ and immediately got cursed as unworthy of having a wife—they even doomed my future descendants..."
"A wife? Hmm, I suddenly have a bold idea. What if we invite some expert online debaters to back us up? At this rate, only they can stand up to them."
"..."
In the stream followers’ chat group, exhausted by several "major online battles," everyone was complaining incessantly.
Qing Lan, seeing her followers’ complaints, reopened her account on that platform to check her private messages. But the content creator hadn’t seen her message and hadn’t replied.
Actually, she had only learned about this incident when her stream followers alerted her in their group chat. Because she often watched Qin Mu’s videos during her live streams, many of her stream followers were also Qin Mu’s fans.
And in the video released by Takeout Xiao Liang... it was actually just a simple matter of a delivery driver getting a negative review, nothing too serious. But after seeing the delivery driver’s ordeal, many netizens’ self-righteousness exploded in full force. It was completely one-sided. They showered the delivery driver with unlimited sympathy and goodwill while relentlessly attacking Qin Mu. The verbal violence grew increasingly severe. While sympathizing with the delivery driver, everyone made sure to disparage Qin Mu to showcase their "correct moral compass."
After she realized the situation... she attempted to argue with reason, but no matter how she laid out the facts and reasoned with them, those netizens simply wouldn’t listen. They thought she was cold-hearted and immoral. With her explosive temper, of course she couldn’t tolerate it. She immediately rallied her stream followers in the group, launching a spirited counteroffensive.
Unfortunately, their counteroffensive was dead on arrival. They had targeted over a dozen highly-liked comments but failed to win a single engagement.
"Sister Lan, maybe we should just give up? The up hasn’t even shown his face, and we simply can’t win against them!"
"Is it possible the up saw the video’s comment section and got so angry he ended up in the ICU?"
"Sigh, I’m getting old; my energy isn’t what it was. Ten years ago, I could have taken on ten of them by myself!"
"I’m backing out. I’d rather go stomp some noobs in a game; arguing really isn’t my strong suit..."
In the fan group, gradually, stream followers began to announce their withdrawal from the battle to protect their families.
Qing Lan gave a wry smile and also stopped her retorts.
Arguing with this bunch of holier-than-thou hypocrites... It was just too difficult. One could never wake up people pretending to be asleep.
「The next day.」
Qin Mu stayed at home as usual, not going out. He continuously monitored the video’s comment section, noting down the "rising stars" whose comments had garnered over 500 likes.
The video’s view count had reached 8 million. Its growth was slowing, seemingly having reached its peak exposure.
However, the comments vilifying him that had over 500 likes... now numbered fifty-five in total! The number was extremely alarming.
After taking screenshots of these comments for evidence, he called Shen Dao. He updated Shen Dao on the "latest developments" of the situation.
"I’m planning to sue all these people as soon as the court opens tomorrow," Qin Mu said over the phone. He then asked, "By the way, how are things with those eight instigators?"
On the other end, Shen Dao was silent for over ten seconds before replying in a grave voice, "We’ve already dispatched officers. We expect to have them in custody within a week."
Qin Mu was quite pleased upon hearing this. He continued, "Then I’ll send you the information on the fifty-five account nicknames first. There might be more later; I’ll supplement the list then."
Shen Dao was again silent for over ten seconds. It was only after a while that he spoke softly, "Suing fifty-five people means preparing fifty-five separate complaints..."
"No problem, I’m not afraid of the hassle," Qin Mu said, waving his hand dismissively, as if to say he could handle the burden.
「On the other end, in the police station.」
Shen Dao’s mouth twitched slightly, and he couldn’t help but remind him, "This is a private prosecution. Once you file, you’ll have to bear the litigation costs yourself—for all fifty-five of them."
At this moment, he was certain that Qin Mu genuinely intended to sue this group of people! He wasn’t planning on letting a single one off the hook. The charges would naturally be for insult and defamation. With these private prosecutions, public prosecution agencies wouldn’t take up the case, so the litigant had to cover the costs themselves.
The litigation expenses included case acceptance fees, application fees, and travel, accommodation, and living expenses for relevant personnel, as well as compensation for their lost work time. All things considered... the cost of suing each person was not insignificant. With fifty-five people, the total was already over eight hundred thousand! Going to court meant a huge financial expense! For the average person, it was definitely a daunting prospect!
"No problem, I’ve already calculated that. The compensation from Lin Zhen arrived the other day—exactly eight hundred thousand," Qin Mu replied, having listened to Shen Dao’s reminder. Smiling, he added, "Besides, in a lawsuit, I can also demand compensation for damage to reputation and emotional distress. I should be able to recoup some of the costs."
Regarding pursuing one’s rights through private prosecution, it was indeed difficult to proceed without funds. As the plaintiff, one had to bear the litigation fees, and the more people sued, the higher the costs.