Man Arrested Over Fake Rescue Requests After Noto Quake; 25-Year-Old Allegedly Posed as Disaster Victim on X

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:22 JST, July 25, 2024

KANAZAWA — A 25-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of posting fake rescue requests on social media following the major earthquake that hit the Noto Peninsula on New Year’s Day.

Ryota Kanamaru of Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, allegedly hampered the rescue operations of the Ishikawa prefectural police and other authorities by posting more than 10 messages on X, formerly Twitter. Kanamaru is accused of pretending to be a disaster victim and claiming that his family was trapped under a collapsed house and needed to be rescued.

An acquaintance of a person who saw the messages contacted the Wajima city office, prompting rescue personnel from the police to search the site on the morning of Jan. 2. But they found no collapsed building as claimed in the message, and the people at the site were safe.

The prefectural police investigated the case with the help of information provided by the cybercrime special investigation team of the Kanto Regional Police Bureau.

Kanamaru was arrested Wednesday on charges of fraudulent obstruction of business. He has admitted the allegations, saying he put up the messages because he wanted to get a lot of responses, according to the police.

This is the first arrest to be made over false social media posts related to the Noto Peninsula Earthquake, the police said. They said they are aware of other fake posts on social media and elsewhere.

Wajima man expresses anger

A man whose address was used in the fake rescue requests has expressed anger over the incident.

“I want people to be aware that putting false information on social media can get you arrested,” said the self-employed man, 47, from Wajima. The posts containing the man’s address were widely circulated on X.

“Why would someone want to get attention when people affected by the disaster were struggling?” the man said angrily. One of his acquaintances was among those killed in the disaster.

Rescue requests containing his address can still be found on X. “There may be people who spread the [false] messages in an attempt to help, and I don’t blame them,” he said. “People shouldn’t put up fake information in the first place.”

The government is considering taking steps to deal with disinformation that went viral in the aftermath of the Noto Peninsula quake. An expert panel of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry has compiled a draft report requiring major social media operators to promptly remove illegal posts.