On The Infringement Of Reputation Right Of Public Figures Under The Network Environment

With the development of Internet information technology and news industry,various new media social platforms,such as Weibo and We Chat,have been derived in the digital information age.The data of China Internet Network Information Center shows,as of December 2020,the scale of Internet users in China has reached989 million,and the penetration rate is as high as 70.4%.The new media environment makes citizens’ speech expression more multi-channel and free.At the same time,with the help of the hidden,extensive and rapid characteristics of Internet communication,cases of infringing on the reputation rights of public figures,especially performing stars,are emerging one after another,resulting in new legal problems related to the infringement of personality rights,which leads to new thinking on restricting and protecting the reputation rights of public figures under the network environment.China in the new era has entered a new stage of the "civil code era".Civil code has strengthened the protection of personality right,in which personality right has been compiled independently and many Internet-related clauses have been added,which has attracted much attention after its promulgation,showing distinct characteristics of the times.However,the concept of "public figure" is not clarified in the Civil Code,which makes it difficult to protect the personality rights of public figures from the general public.Public figures have different characteristics from ordinary people.In the face of the supervision of public opinion and the public’s right to know,the corresponding personality rights of public figures are limited and have a moderate tolerance obligation.However,it does not mean that the personality of public figures can be derogated at will.The reputation and dignity of public figures should be protected according to law,and the degree of tolerance should be judged according to specific facts.Based on the latest provisions of the Civil Code,this paper takes the actual hot cases as the breakthrough point,and analyzes the constituent elements of infringement determination around the characteristics of reputation infringement in the network environment.Starting from the current legislative situation,this paper focuses on the problems existing in the application of judgment rules in the cases of disputes over public figures’ online reputation rights in practice,analyzes the difficulties of practical judgment,and discusses the infringement determination and restriction protection of public figures’ online reputation rights in the new media era.This paper reflects on the abuse of rights in practice,tries to solve the conflict of rights in practice from the angle of legal interpretation and application,and puts forward the viewpoint of "anti-restriction of the restriction and protection of public figures’ reputation right",and puts forward that the defense principle for public figures is not opposed to its application,but should be reasonably applied in the network reputation infringement to seek a better balance between the public figures’ reputation right and ordinary citizens’ freedom of online speech in case trials.