Victims of abuse on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook who have sought to identify their abusers through the courts have been left disappointed by judicial rulings blocking the disclosure of such information.
The difficulty in identifying users who post abusive comments on social media is the central issue.
Although the Tokyo District Court on Friday ordered the disclosure of information on a web user accused of using a spoof account to impersonate a complainant on social media, in many cases, victims are unable to obtain information on their abusers.
Legal action has been pursued by victims in an effort to get internet service providers and website hosts to disclose information such as the IP address -- or, internet address -- of devices through which abusive comments were posted, and information about the owners of the devices. If abusers are identified, victims can seek redress including making claims for damages.
On social media, it is not uncommon for users to leave their accounts inactive for long periods. Users may also log into accounts from multiple devices and accounts could be accessed by multiple users. In online defamation lawsuits, the issue is how to confirm whether a user who has logged into an account is responsible for defamatory comments posted from the account.
In January 2019, the Tokyo High Court in January ruled against a woman in the entertainment industry who had filed a lawsuit claiming she was defamed on Twitter.
The court concluded that it was not possible to identify the person who posted the comment because the account may have been shared by more than one user and more than 10 hours had passed between the original login and the posting of the defamatory comment.
Abuse victims have lost other cases, on similar grounds. The same high court in February 2017 handed down a similar ruling in a defamation lawsuit in connection with Facebook.
According to several attorneys who handle dozens of similar lawsuits every year, victims lose in 30-50% of such cases because courts cannot confirm that the people logged into the accounts are also responsible for the comments they are accused of posting.
The Provider Liability Limitation Law does not clearly state whether ordering disclosure of personal information based on IP addresses is permitted.
"The system of the posting of comments on social media goes beyond what is assumed by law," said lawyer Tomohiro Kanda, who is an expert on internet rights violations.
"To salvage victims, we need to take drastic measures, such as establishing a provision to allow widespread disclosure of information by login IP."
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