TMCnet News
Tokyo court sees growing petitions against Internet postings(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The Tokyo District Court has seen a sharp increase in petitions for injunction against malicious Internet postings including defamation and slander over recent years, court sources said Wednesday. The number of such petitions handled by the court expanded more than 20-fold in four years to 711 in 2013 as problems increased on the spread of social networking services, with citizens growing aware of how to respond to malicious postings, they said. The law for restricting responsibilities of Internet service providers, which took effect in 2002, allows citizens to ask providers to remove postings or identify posting contributors. But the trend shows judiciary proceedings are thought to be an easy problem-solving tool. The number rose from 33 in 2009 to 175 in 2010, 499 in 2011 and 736 in 2012. The petitions usually seek to remove specific postings or request to identify posting contributors or ban the deletion of information about such contributors in preparation for filing libel suits. Of the 711 petitions in 2013, 247 called for removing postings, 290 for identifying posting contributors and 174 for keeping information on posting contributors. Since malicious postings are frequently repeated even after their removal, a rising number of petitions have demanded the identification of posting contributors to help prevent postings from being repeated or file damages suits, a lawyer said. Internet service providers easily accept the removal of postings, while refusing frequently to identify posting contributors, the lawyer said. (c) 2014 Kyodo News |