'A Beijing court has ruled that a social media user should apologise to Taiwanese actress Ruby Lin for calling her a Taiwan independence supporter, and pay her 60,000 yuan (S$11,599) in compensation.

"The Weibo account was registered and used by an individual surnamed Huang, and the posts contained content that were largely abusive and anger-venting in nature, as well as descriptions that were not fact-based, such as 'Taiwan independence', which constitute insult and slander to the plaintiff," the Beijing-based Xingquan Law Firm, which sued on behalf of Lin, quoted Beijing Haidian District Court as saying on Wednesday.