Shimura Ken’s corona infection hoax lawsuit: Company employee woman confesses regret: “I have nothing but regret right now.

It was as if a deadly weapon had been suddenly thrown over his head.

Mariko Fujisaki, the mama of Club Fujisaki, a well-known club in Kitashinchi, Osaka, recalled the horror of the “spread of false rumors.

In March 2008, it was announced that comedian Ken Shimura (70 years old) had contracted a new type of coronavirus. Immediately after that, a false rumor was posted on SNS that “Mama Fujisaki infected Mr. Shimura with corona,” and it spread. When Mr. Shimura later passed away, the anger of fans who believed the post was directed at Ms. Fujisaki. Mr. Fujisaki said, “‘I won’t forgive you’ and ‘You are a murderer.

I received about 300 slanderous messages a day on my SNS account at the most, saying things like ‘I won’t forgive you’ and ‘You’re a murderer. No matter how much I tried to explain that I had never met Mr. Shimura, they would just say, ‘Don’t lie. At one point, I was so mentally trapped that I wondered if this situation would end if I died.

Ms. Fujisaki then began requesting disclosure of information from the contributors. On May 13 of this year, she filed a lawsuit in Osaka District Court against 26 posters who did not agree to a settlement, seeking a total of approximately 33 million yen in damages.

How did the false rumor about Mr. Shimura spread? One of the perpetrators, Ami, a company employee, explains how it happened.

Ms. X, who used to be a mama at a famous club, was the one who spread the false rumor about Mr. Shimura. She was hostile to Mr. Fujisaki, a popular colleague, and had repeatedly slandered him even before the Shimura case. When Mr. Shimura’s corona infection was revealed, a staff member at Ms. X’s restaurant posted a hoax on SNS. From there, it spread quickly.”

Ms. Ami expresses her regret.

I was originally a fan of Ms. X and became close to her through social gatherings. After that, she started asking me to help her with slander, and I helped her out of a desire not to be disliked. It is absolutely unacceptable to use Ms. Shimura’s death to lower the reputation of a rival. I keep regretting that I should have stopped her more seriously.”

When this magazine interviewed Mr. X, he responded in writing through his attorney, saying, “Please confirm the truthfulness of the information provided by the informant and whether or not it is for public interest purposes.

Mr. Fujisaki, on the other hand, explains why he decided to file the lawsuit.

I am not the only one who has suffered from false postings on the Internet. I filed the lawsuit in the hope that it would be an opportunity to let the world know that even anonymous postings can be identified by filing an information disclosure request.

No matter what you do on social networking sites, you are not immune from detection. It is too late to regret after posting a hoax.

From the June 9, 2023 issue of FRIDAY