Recently, NIO’s legal department has been taking action frequently.
On February 17, NIO's legal department took legal action against the online account "Yin Ge Popularizes New Energy" for publishing the false content that "Ledao forced employees to buy cars and then fired them", which attracted widespread attention. According to NIO's statement, the account used "breaking news" as a gimmick to spread serious false information about the Ledao brand. The company has collected evidence and filed a lawsuit in court, and reported the case to the public security organs, demanding accountability.
In January, a self-media outlet broke the news that Ledao "forced employees to buy cars or resign", but in fact the store manager of the brand's Wenzhou store misunderstood the intentions of the top management and "freely exercised his power" to "force employees to buy cars". Ledao Vice President Qinghua explained that this was "improper communication" and emphasized that the essence of the policy was to encourage employees to experience the product, and never forced employees to buy cars.
This time, NIO adopted a two-pronged approach: on the one hand, it obtained the information of the infringing accounts and sought compensation through legal channels, and on the other hand, it relied on public security organs to intervene and investigate possible criminal activities.
Since the first day of work after the Spring Festival, NIO's legal department has taken legal action against dozens of rumor-mongering accounts, and CEO Li Bin has publicly called on "trolls" to become informants, promising a reward far exceeding their gray income. As of February 14, NIO has received nearly 2,000 reporting clues, showing the enthusiasm of the public to participate.
This incident is not an isolated case. It is a common challenge faced by the automotive industry, especially the new energy sector, in brand reputation management. The "rumor-fighting war" in the new energy vehicle industry has become a normal trend. For example, BYD filed a lawsuit for a high claim of 5 million yuan against the account "徐里里Xll" that has been posting false statements for a long time, and raised the upper limit of the reward for reporting to 5 million yuan; Xiaopeng Motors started to collect evidence against the account that fabricated the autonomous driving accident; and the legal department of Zeekr also announced that it would severely crack down on online infringements.
These cases show that automakers are shifting from passive response to active attack, building a defense system through legal means. This shift is driven by multiple factors. First, competition in the new energy track is fierce, and brand image directly affects market share; second, smart electric vehicles are highly complex, and there is information gap in public cognition, which provides a breeding ground for rumors; third, the dissemination characteristics of social media make it possible for false information to spread exponentially, which is difficult to deal with by traditional public relations methods.
However, while the car companies’ strong rights protection is necessary, it has also triggered new discussions.
Although legal means can effectively curb malicious rumors, such as NIO's use of litigation to obtain anonymous account information, breaking the protection barrier of online anonymity, it is still necessary to be cautious in defining "reasonable criticism" and "malicious smearing". Some car companies use qualitative expressions such as "self-directed and self-acted" and "rumors out of thin air" in their statements, which may face legal challenges to the burden of proof. At the same time, the media has the right to supervise companies and society. If car companies "cannot tolerate a little sand" in their eyes and only regard the media/self-media as a "mouthpiece" to help them spread information, then on the one hand, the automotive industry will not be able to develop healthily, and on the other hand, they lack a correct understanding of the nature of the media.
In addition, although the reward mechanism for reporting can mobilize social forces, high bonuses may induce false clues and increase corporate audit costs. NIO currently adopts the method of "grading rewards based on importance", which may be a choice to balance efficiency and risk.
In the long run, establishing an industry-wide joint anti-black mechanism and pushing online platforms to improve content review rules will be more sustainable than a single company's operations.
The phenomenon of "normalization of legal departments" in the new energy vehicle industry is not only a reflection of the improvement of corporate legal awareness, but also reflects the need to adjust new social relations in digital transformation. When technological innovation and information dissemination accelerate simultaneously, how to find a balance between open discussion and order maintenance will become a proposition that the entire industry and even the Internet ecosystem will continue to explore.
