Anonymous Twitter account attacking the opposition party… it turns out to be a “corporation.
Using social networking sites to manipulate public opinion?
There is no stopping the irresponsible writing and slander by anonymous users. I still remember the fuss over the marriage of a member of the Imperial Family, and the case of Princess Mako, who suffered a mental breakdown as a result.
Identifying the “insider” and suing for defamation
In the midst of all this, Hiroyuki Konishi, a member of the House of Councilors of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, has filed a lawsuit for defamation against a Twitter post attacking him.
“Since last year Twitter It was only the day before yesterday that I filed a lawsuit against the posts on Twitter. The reason why it took so long was because the postings were from an anonymous account. In order to identify the person I was suing, I first had to file a ‘request for disclosure of sender’s information’ with the provider. Last month, the request was finally approved and the other party was identified.
“The owner of the account, who calls himself “Dappi (@dappi2019),” is not an individual but “a corporation.
Dappi Dappi. We have found out the sender’s information regarding October 6 On October 6, we filed a lawsuit for damages for defamation with the Tokyo District Court. Dappi In his tweets, Dappi has repeatedly slandered my political activities.
For example, he took up a part of an exchange with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Diet and tweeted, “It’s pathetic that Konishi is upset that I didn’t listen to him. In response, Konishi replied on Twitter at the time.
“Onishi replied on Twitter at the time: “There was no mention of the National Public Service Law in the answers Abe was repeating with his broken tape recorder.
It is false to claim that ‘I have said this repeatedly from the very beginning’ while reading a cheat sheet from his secretary.
Therefore, Mr. Dappi’s point of view constitutes slander against me without any factual basis. I warn you of legal action.
Whether or not Mr. Dappi’s act of “sending out messages on social networking sites” will be charged with defamation will remain to be seen, but what is interesting is his “true identity.
The “corporation” in this account is an IT-related company in Tokyo. It’s a small company, but in the ‘main customers’ section of the company’s information, it lists the ‘Liberal Democratic Party. This is a small company, but in its company information, it listed the “Liberal Democratic Party” as its “main customers. (IT person).
It has been suspected for some time that some of the slander on social networking sites, especially Twitter, may be organized “activities”. This time, the “disclosure of sender’s information” by Representative Konishi was approved, and the fact that the sender was a “corporation” confirmed the “suspicion” to some extent.
The fact that the sender was a “corporation” confirms our suspicions to some extent. “It is very dangerous for a group or organization with financial power to post a lot of messages with a certain intention and make it look as if it is ‘public opinion.
During the US presidential election, many people pointed out the danger of this kind of “activity”. I wonder if the same kind of “activities” are taking place in Japan.
“Posts concentrated on weekday afternoons … The eeriness that has been pointed out
Daisuke Tsuda, a journalist who is well versed in the current state of social networking sites, warns that
“The account posted photos of six major newspapers in the early hours of the morning, including the Sankei, which does not have a reduced edition, and internal documents that are only distributed to lawmakers, leading to suspicions that it was a secretary of a lawmaker or a member of a political party.
It was a big step forward to find out that the account was operated by a corporation through Konishi’s lawsuit, because the information was intentionally distorted and spread, and much of it was used to criticize the opposition parties and the Asahi Shimbun.
It has been pointed out that the account may have been operated by some kind of organization as a “business” account, since the posts were mostly limited to business hours on weekdays. The fact that Konishi’s request for disclosure of the sender’s information was approved this time and the other party was found to be a corporation seems to confirm this suspicion. The fact that the other party is a corporation seems to confirm this suspicion.
It seems that this corporation had some kind of business relationship with the LDP, but that was just the first step. The key will be whether or not it was engaged in the “business” of distorting information to form public opinion in favor of the ruling party. To prove this, we will need a work order or testimony from inside the company, so it will be very difficult, but I would like to keep an eye on future reports.
I would like to know if the organization that gave the orders to this account was a political party or if it had something to do with the Prime Minister’s Office, and if so, what was the source of the funds. It would be a huge scandal if some organization was using our tax money to create public opinion in their favor through online manipulation. Like the case of the fraudulent signatures in the recall of the Aichi governor, this could be a serious case of democracy being distorted by unfair means.
The hurdles for investigation and proof are high, but I hope the media will follow this issue properly,” Tsuda said.
We can’t just sit back and cover up this problem before the election. We need to keep a close watch on this issue in order to form an undistorted “public opinion.