Case studies: a blog about real people’s experience with the law — Naho
Naho is currently a research intern within the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch UK. She holds an LLM in IT, Media, and Communication Law from the London School of Economics. Naho regularly shares insights about legal studies and IT law, as well as job-hunting strategies on her LC.N blog, “Inventive Steps”.
Welcome to our new blog series ‘Case studies’, bringing you real life stories from people who have found themselves unexpectedly in need of the justice system.
In this first blog in the series, Naho shares her personal story — about her brush with the law, in Japan! — and discusses the conflicting issues of privacy and freedom of speech she faced online.
##Online privacy & freedom of speech — A fine balance
I once ran a popular law-related blog in Japan that received up to 10,000 hits per day. Sadly, the blog does not exist anymore due to the terrible abuse and defamation I came to face online. Feeling that my life and privacy had been put in danger, I made the decision to take down the blog despite the fact that it had been an important, positive part of my student life.
You may wonder — did the law help me at all in this situation? Not really. As a law student I did have an understanding of the legal issues involved, yet appropriate support was simply not available. Allow me to explain in more detail.
##My cyber defamation experience
Under the pseudonym “Sakura”, meaning cherry blossom in Japanese, I began to actively blog about my student life at Kyoto University towards the middle of my undergraduate career. Since I was working four to five days a week as a part-time teacher while studying hard to enter a competitive law school, I was under some pressure to invent original study techniques and tools to maximise my efficiency. These techniques and tools seemed to resonate with readers, and the blog became one of the most well-read blogs in the education/study category in Japan (according to Ameba.jp).
However, becoming popular meant facing a higher risk of being targeted by trolls — a regrettably common problem in Japan. Eventually, someone anonymously opened a special online thread on the largest Japanese online discussion forum, 2channel, where people discussed me and my blog. This thread contained various abusive remarks ranging from sexual insults to privacy infringements, which included the exposure of my real identity and home address. Though distressed, I managed to ignore the comments up to a point. However, when I discovered new insults and defamatory comments targeting my friends, I came to feel such a strong sense of guilt (for indirectly causing harm to my friends), that I had no choice but to delete my blog.
##No affordable help available
Did I try turning to the law for help? To an extent, yes. It seemed apparent that those harassing me were infringing on my right to privacy, harming my public reputation, and seriously insulting me — all of which are, in principle, illegal acts. I tried to warn the harassers via the forum on 2channel, but this only added fuel to their fire. Unfortunately, 2channel refused to remove the problematic posts based on its own deletion guidelines (unless a post violates these, it cannot be deleted — even if the post represents a crime).
Next, I called and emailed the Japanese “cyber police unit”, only to be told that they could not help cases like mine. They required a “more prominent danger” (such as evidence of a direct threat).
At this point, my only remaining option was to file a case against the perpetrators, or 2channel itself. Unfortunately, as a student relying entirely on income from part-time work and limited scholarships, I had no money to cover legal costs and therefore, no choice but to give up on seeking a legal remedy.
Surprisingly, insulting comments continued to be posted on 2Channel for nearly a year after the closure of my blog. The personal emotional costs of this episode in my life were severe, as I was put under considerable distress for over two years and completely lost the motivation to express myself online (which used to be an important part of my identity).
##The law should be available to everyone
Thanks to this experience, whilst studying at the London School of Economics in 2013, I chose to write my masters dissertation on the balance between the right to privacy and freedom of speech online. My argument was that unlimited freedom of speech online tends to cause serious harm to individuals’ right to privacy and reputation, which in turns produces an “indirect silencing effect” on online expression. Building on existing legal scholarship, I explained why far more support should available for protecting these vital rights.
What, exactly, should be the goal of future reforms in this area? In my particular case, there is little doubt that at least some of what the perpetrators did was illegal. Yet, even as a law student I lacked access to a feasible remedy. I would therefore say that this is not merely a problem with the law itself, but rather a problem of the broader legal process.
In the end, even if legislators create seemingly adequate laws, these laws are of no use if people are unable to rely on them in times of need. In an online world, where perpetuators are increasingly difficult to identify even as their ability to cause various harms remains considerable, we need to identify legal solutions that really do have teeth at a practical level. Innovation in the sector, such as legal crowdfunding are a key first step to creating change for people looking to access the law.
Have a legal case that could benefit from crowdfunding?
