Abstract
The “Act to Partially Amend the Act on the Limitation of Liability of Specified Telecommunications Service Providers for Damages and the Right to Demand Disclosure of Sender Identification Information,” enacted in the 213th Ordinary Session of the Diet, is a law that the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications designates large-scale social media or online bulletin board providers as “large-scale specified telecommunications service providers” in order to address harm including rights infringement on online information distribution platforms, and takes measures such as imposing the obligations (1) to deal with takedown requests expeditiously and (2) to make the operation status transparent.
Specifically, (1) in order to deal with takedown requests expeditiously, large-scale specified telecommunications service providers shall publicize a method of receiving takedown requests from those who claim that their rights have been infringed on the platforms, establish a system necessary to conduct investigations regarding the requests, and notify the requesters of the decisions within a certain period of time.
In addition, (2) in order to make the operation status transparent, large-scale specified telecommunications service providers shall stipulate and publicize standards for removal and suspension, and if they remove a post or suspend an account, they shall notify a sender of such a fact and its reason, and shall publicize the content moderation status once a year.
Besides, the title of the law is changed to the “Act on Measures Against Infringement of Rights, etc. Arising from Distribution of Information by Specified Telecommunications” (abbreviation: Information Distribution Platform Act).
