The Canadian court held that the expression of "like" was equivalent to a signature and required the defendant to fulfill his contractual obligations of US $60,000.

CTOnews.com, July 9 (Xinhua)-- the District Court of Saskatchewan, Canada recently announced a ruling that the "like" icon is legally equivalent to a signature, requiring the defendant to fulfill an outstanding contractual obligation of US $61442 (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 444000 yuan).

Buyer Kent Mickelboro (Kent Mickleborough) contacted farmer Chris Agt (Chris Achter) through an instant messaging app in March 2021, hoping to buy 86 tons of flax for a total of $61442 for $12.73 per Bushel.

In November of the same year, Mikleborough sent a screenshot of the contract text and asked to confirm the agreement in the message; Agt did not respond positively, but replied with a "like" emoji.

However, due to the rise in the price of flax, Agt did not deliver within the agreed time, the contradiction between the two sides escalated, and finally resolved the dispute through legal means.

The seller himself insisted that his emoji could only be used as confirmation that he had received the message and that he had no time to study the text of the contract.

Judge Timothy Keane (Timothy Keene), who used the definition of the online dictionary dictionary.com during the trial, decided that the "like" icon amounted to an informal signature and endorsed the contract in this case.