Blogger in Taiwan writes bad review of restaurant, gets fined $7,000

In America, bloggers are typically protected by the First Amendment when it comes to writing writing bad reviews of establishments. Websites such as Yelp! allow users to say pretty much whatever they want, provided it’s not horrendously libelous. Bloggers in Taiwan, however, are apparently afforded such a luxury, as one woman in Taiwan is being fined the equivalent of $7,000 for criticizing a noodle shop.

Liu Ying-hui was fined Tw$200,000 for saying in 2009 that a noodle shop she attended was “unclean” and its food was “really bad.” She went on to say that food was “too salty,” the owner a “bully,” and the restaurant itself was “unclean with cockroaches.”

Clearly not the worst thing you can say about a restaurant, but this simple rant, which would have likely gone unseen by most, landed the woman in court. The district court in central Taiwan ruled that her remarks “crossed the boundary of an appropriate review,” mainly because she didn’t provide any evidence of her claims.

The fine she was issued will go toward compensating the shop, though one has to wonder how they came up with this number. I suppose that, in the end, she was lucky. She could have received 30 days in jail, but instead got a two-year suspended sentence in addition to the fine.

Imagine what would have happened had this taken place in the United states.


/Weird Asia News/