TOKYO: The Japanese Internal Affairs Ministry made a proposal July 10 to simplify the procedures for asking social media operators to disclose information on the posters of abusive or defamatory messages, in an effort to tackle cyberbullying.

The idea was included in an interim plan for systemic revisions aimed at supporting online abuse victims that was submitted to a meeting of experts the same day.

The ministry hopes to draw up the final version of the plan in November.

In the interim plan, the ministry called for introducing a new system that would allow victims to ask courts to decide whether or not social media operators should disclose the requested information. Once such system is in place, victims would no longer have to file lawsuits against social media firms to get them to make disclosures.

The ministry will consider details of the measure, with a view to revise the law on the limitation of liability for internet providers.

Due to privacy concerns, it is currently difficult for social media operators to decide on their own whether information on message posters should be disclosed. Victims, therefore, have to take legal action in most cases to obtain Internet Protocol addresses, which are needed to file damage lawsuits against message posters.

The plan also called for obliging companies to a limited extent to save IP addresses and other communications records before they are automatically deleted.

In addition, the ministry proposed clarifying the requirements for information disclosure to make it easier for social media operators to release requested information at their discretion.

Furthermore, the plan included a proposal to add phone numbers to the list of information that social media operators would have to disclose. For this addition, a related ministry ordinance will be revised as early as August.

The move will allow victims to obtain from mobile carriers through lawyers the names and addresses of message posters.

Cyberbullying came under the spotlight in Japan after professional wrestler and reality television show star Hana Kimura, 22, died in an apparent suicide in May after facing abusive comments on social media.

JIJI Press