Japan to Develop Digital Manual on Deletion of Abusive Online Posts; Govt Aims to Cut Work, Emotional Burden Experienced by Victims

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:23 JST, January 3, 2025

Triggered by a flood of abusive online posts, the government plans to develop a digital manual outlining ways in which victims of such posts violating human rights can ask internet service providers to delete them.

The Justice Ministry is set to develop the manual by the end of fiscal 2025.

Damage caused by defamatory online posts tends to become more serious over time as more people view them, and it becomes more difficult to delete them as the posts spread to multiple sites.

The manual will be available to view on computers and smartphones and will contain the contact information of providers to request the deletion of the posts.

It will also provide a standard text template for the requests, which differ according to defamation content. Users will be able to swiftly create their requests by copying the text onto application forms.

Until now, Legal Affairs Bureau offices across the country have provided advice on an individual basis to victims who sought help regarding abusive online posts. The ministry aims to cut the amount of work and emotional burden the victims experience by teaching them how to make the requests through the manual.

The ministry earmarked about ¥5 million in the government budget plan for fiscal 2025 for related costs.

With the spread of social network services, the number of online human rights violations remains high.

According to the ministry, there were 1,824 new cases handled by the Legal Affairs Bureau offices nationwide in 2023, up 103 from the previous year, and 1.9 times the number of cases in 2013.

Of the 1,824 cases, 542 were violations of privacy including the exposure of personal information such as names and face photos, and 415 were defamation including the posting of false information to lower the victims’ social standing.