Japan Revises Law for Faster Removal of Defamatory Content in Response to Hana Kimura’s Death and Other Defamation Victims


Reposting the same article that was [posted](https://www.reddit.com/r/japannews/s/ltNZbi3HAl) here yesterday, as people didn’t read it and automatically assumed it was about reviews of businesses.

Here’s the full article with the original headline:

**[Japan enacts revised law for swift removal of defamatory online posts](https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/05/bca311142b65-japan-enacts-revised-law-for-swift-removal-of-defamatory-online-posts.html)**

TOKYO – Japan’s parliament on Friday enacted an amended law aimed at facilitating the swift removal of defamatory content on social media platforms like Facebook and X with more transparency.

The revised provider liability limitation law mandates the operators of such platforms to set up points of contact for accepting deletion requests and disclose criteria for removing posts, among other measures. It will take effect within a year.

Moves toward strengthening measures against online defamation gained traction after Hana Kimura, a professional wrestler and cast member on the then popular Netflix reality show “Terrace House,” committed suicide in 2020 after receiving a barrage of hateful messages on social media.

Many defamation victims have been seeking to have such posts promptly deleted before they can spread but have struggled to find a point of contact and say deletion rules are unclear.

The law also requires operators to notify people within a specified time frame whether posts will be deleted.

The legislation was approved by the House of Councillors on Friday after being passed by the House of Representatives on April 19.

by Prestigious-Charge62

2 comments
  1. Hmm… I’m all for limiting egregious cyber bullying, but how does the law define defamation? Japan defamation laws as they are now favor the accuser even if the accuser is “defamed” for justifiable reasons (whistleblowing, bad reviews on Yelp, etc.).

    This law could easily be used to more quickly and efficiently censor news outlets in favor of legit bad actors… and also make useless any kind of service/product reviews on commerce platforms.

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