Police Act Against Blog Flamers

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: MPD to build 1st case against blog flamers
The Metropolitan Police Department will send papers to prosecutors on 18 people on suspicion of defaming a 37-year-old comedian by relentlessly posting malicious comments on the celebrity's blog, MPD sources said. According to the sources, it would be the first case in which the police build a case against mass attacks on a blog. The move is aimed at stemming the escalating trend of cyber-bullying that takes advantage of the veneer of anonymity on the Internet. The 18 people, aged between 17 and 45, allegedly made groundless accusations on the blog that the TV personality is a murderer...According to the sources, the 18 people include a 45-year-old man in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, who works as a staff worker at a national university; a 35-year-old man in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture; and a 17-year-old high school girl in Sapporo. The police have searched their homes and seized data on their PCs and cell phones. The 18 people are suspected of groundlessly accusing the comedian on his blog between January and April last year that he was involved in a 1989 murder of a high school girl that in reality was committed by four minors in Adachi Ward, Tokyo...Every time the accusatory comments were removed from the comedian's blog, users soon posted new comments. The comedian prohibited readers from posting comments on the blog in April last year, and he filed a complaint with Nakano Police Station in which he said that the messages were damaging his reputation as a TV personality and obstructing his work. The MPD tracked the blog's communication log and found that dozens of people had posted such messages. It then identified the 18 people who relentlessly wrote malicious comments...more...

Edit: I've now replaced my summary with the Yomiuri's own English translation

[ac!d_burn]

Their behavior sounds like it could be cause for a libel suit.

[cot faulking]

I hope Jack doesn't become famous. In which case we'd all be screwed...

We were only kidding Jack really!!

[kusai Jijii]

[quote="cot faulking"]I hope Jack doesn't become famous. In which case we'd all be screwed...

We were only kidding Jack really!! ]

You're fucked too.

[Mulboyne]

Although the article below again doesn't name the entertainer, reports have revealed that the man in question is comedian Smiley Kikuchi.

Yomiuri: Celebs, regular people burned by flamers

After years of being falsely accused on his blog of involvement in the murder of a high school girl almost 20 years ago, a 37-year-old comedian poured out his heart in a message on his blog. "I've been treated like a criminal. This has caused me many problems," he wrote in August. Although the comedian restricted comments posted on his blog from April, the damage had been done. The untrue accusations posted by commenters on his blog that he had a hand in the 1989 death of the girl in Adachi Ward, Tokyo, had spread even to blogs of people who previously had written favorably about him, where the character assassination continued. The Metropolitan Police Department stepped in Thursday and sent papers to prosecutors on a 29-year-old woman from Kawasaki suspected of threatening to kill the comedian in a message on his blog--the first case in which the police have taken action against repeated threats on a blog. Police reportedly plan to send papers on 18 other people suspected of posting vicious messages on his blog.

Mass attacks on a person's character or reputation on a blog, chat room or other online site started ringing alarm bells in about 2003. Some targets have been forced to shut down their blogs after a nasty smear has spread like wildfire--giving rise to the name for this sort of attack: flaming. These online firestorms also are sometimes known in Japanese as "festivals." Many people in the public eye have found themselves taking the brunt of such attacks. Writer and critic Hiromi Ikeuchi was subject to a barrage of criticism and threats by users who had taken offense at some comments she had posted on her blog. One man wrote on her blog that a seminar run by Ikeuchi would "be turned into a sea of blood." The seminar was canceled, and the man who posted the message was arrested in February 2007 on suspicion of intimidation and other charges. Despite this, the harassment still continued. Another user accused Ikeuchi of being the daughter of a gang boss. "Some comments have even been directed at my family," Ikeuchi, 47, said. "It has been absolutely shocking."

Pro golfer Momoko Ueda also was pushed to temporarily close down her blog after it was inundated with angry comments posted after she said on TV in October 2007 remarks that could have been interpreted as suggesting that sports such as basketball and volleyball did not have much of a future. However, celebrities are not the only ones coming under attack--even regular people are being targeted by flamers. In one recent case, a university associate professor who appeared to make light of the 1999 murder of a woman and her infant daughter in Hikari, Yamaguchi Prefecture, was repeatedly criticized on his blog. A high school girl who wrote that she "squeezed money from a restaurant by falsely claiming she had eaten pizza that contained the chemical melamine" also felt the wrath of furious readers online.

Web consultant Shinichi Ijichi said he has seen an uptick in inquiries since last year from people and companies about how to prevent flaming. "Flaming isn't just some talk in another dimension that ends on the Internet," Ijichi said. "It can affect people's lives and a company's corporate image, and become a problem that requires crisis management." Journalist Hiroyuki Fujishiro believes that stamping out flaming will come down to each individual's Web etiquette and manners. "What we're seeing is that more people believe hook, line and sinker everything they read on online bulletin boards and then casually write their own messages in response. We need to establish an environment where people can learn better Internet manners," he said.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Police in bind over defamation on blogs

The Metropolitan Police Department recently sent papers to prosecutors on six people on suspicion of defaming comedian Smiley Kikuchi in comments left on his blog. However, these incidents under official investigation are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to online defamation. Last year, police nationwide received more than 10,000 complaints about libel perpetrated via the Internet, but only 61 of these complaints were taken up. Last November, a woman in her 40s in the Kanto region noticed something unusual on her blog--daily visits had jumped from the average of about 800 a day to more than 10,000. Surprised by this, she checked the comments section, where she found it full of insults against her, such as "liar" and "idiot." These reactions had started with something small but eventually blew up into something big.

In response to a blog entry the woman wrote about her struggle with a disease she once had, a reader had commented, "Isn't this story too good to be true?" This was followed by others picking apart her blog entries trying to find anything suspicious. Initially, the malicious comments were simple verbal abuse such as, "It's fictitious," and, "Hey, show your true nature." But the tone of the comments escalated, including, "Let's find a picture of this bitch," and, "Isn't it possible to find her address or name?" Often, victims of such blog defamation learn that their personal information has been pinned down and, in extreme cases, information such as home address, personal photos of the blogger and even family members, is disclosed on the Net.

A month later, the woman removed the comments section on her blog. But she said: "I've been in fear. What can I do if my home address is found? Because I'm so afraid, I check on the Internet every day [to see if my address has been leaked]." Regarding the incident involving comedian Kikuchi, she said: "I can't say this doesn't affect me. I want the police to crack down on such people and tell the public that defamation on the Internet can be a criminal offense." But police investigations into incidents such as these are not easy to conduct. In Kikuchi's case, the MPD identified several dozen people who made offensive comments on his blog since he launched it in January last year. However, many of the people who posted comments had used Internet cafes and similar places that have communal computer access. The police narrowed down its list of suspects to 18 and began investigating them. All 18 had posted from their own PCs or cell phones.

Kikuchi, 37, limited access to the blog between April and August last year, which investigators say means all comments posted during that period do not constitute criminal defamation because they could not be read by all members of the public. The investigators examined all comments in question and picked out those suggesting physical violence, such as one comment that said, "There are many who want to attack you." The investigators continued the probe, shifting their focus from defamation to intimidation. The police eventually were able to open investigations on only seven comment posters--the six who were investigated this time plus a woman who was referred to prosecutors in February on suspicion of intimidation. Defamation against Kikuchi has continued for about 10 years, not only on his blog, but also on online message boards such as 2 Channel. All seven that were referred to prosecutors told the police they began posting the comments after reading comments on other boards. The seven seemed chagrined that only they were under investigation, telling MPD investigators that their actions were not as grievous as other people's comments. According to the National Police Agency, the number of consultations about defamation on the Internet was 3,685 in 2004. This more than tripled last year to 11,516. But the number of investigations into defamation only went up from 53 in 2006 to 61 last year.

In South Korea, a famous actress committed suicide after malicious comments about her were posted on the Internet. Because of this, legislation to revise the criminal code to establish penalties for online defamation was submitted to the South Korean parliament. A senior MPD official said: "There's a limited number of investigators available for this purpose and we can't crack down on all cases. Though it [the cases on the seven] is an attempt to discourage similar deeds by punishing some offenders, we hope the crackdown discourages online-instigated violence."

===

Reviewing comments key

Toshiyuki Inoue, a journalist who covers the Internet, said online defamation tends to happen on two types of blogs--ones that aim to promote antisocial activities or crackpot ideas, and ones that discuss political and ideological issues, which are prone to stir heated discussion. He said if a blog owner carries his or her personal information such as home address and career, libelous comments tend to escalate. But even if a blogger does not list personal information on their site, this does not guarantee security. In one incident, a blogger posted a photo of a car on their blog and readers were able to figure out the home address based off of images reflected in the car's windshield. "It's possible to identify a person by combining pieces of information disclosed on two or more media, such as blogs and social networking sites," Inoue said. In case of mass defamation, Inoue said, "It's better at first to let them freely post comments."

Inoue himself has had malicious comments posted on his blog. He recommended that a blog owner faced with this situation stop updating the blog and wait for things to simmer down. If the blog owner closes the blog, defamation could continue on other sites such as message boards and escalate, Inoue said. Blog service operators also are taking measures to thwart defamation. Cyber Agent Inc., based in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, operates Ameba Blog, which Kikuchi used to host his blog. Cyber Agent monitors the blogs of about 3,500 famous people around-the-clock. With defamation more likely to occur on the blogs of well-known people, the company reviews all comments before they are posted. About 50 employees patrol the company's hosted blogs of ordinary users and delete comments with red-flag phrases or words from a list of about 360, such as, "You should die," and "suicide." Pit Crew, a Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo-based company, monitors about 150 types of Internet services, including blogs and message boards. The company said catching such comments quickly is important to prevent defamation from spreading. An official of the company said, "Though truly hateful comments account for only 1 percent to 2 percent of total comments, they can be triggers of serious cases if they go unchecked."

[Mock Cockpit]

Welcome to the internet Japan.