Online platforms have played a foundational role in our communications and access to information. As most platforms are governed by private operators, content moderation using algorithms by them is distinguished from censorship by the government and will not be directly deemed as abridgment of freedom of expression of their users. Instead, it will be protected under the Constitution of Japan as freedom of the operators' own expression. The extent to which the operators may exercise their freedom is considerable given that their expression might include speech that has politically significant implications. On the other hand, full exercise of that freedom may significantly affect the legal interests of platform users or exacerbate discrimination among them as speakers, which requires some interest coordination within the Constitution. As a consequence, the extent to which the freedom may be exercised is endogenously narrowed. However, such effect might not be actualized in cases where platform users are obliged to follow the operators' terms of service. In such cases, the interests of users and those of operators are not properly balanced. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that platform operators should be controlled to a certain extent by law in such a manner as to ensure the disclosure of their basic principles on content moderation to their users in advance.

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This study investigates the role of innovation in the growth and productivity of the manufacturing industries of ICT and other high technologies in China. The empirical analysis adopts an endogenous growth production function and examines the cross-provincial data over the period from 1995 to 2016. The result certifies that the value of innovation on productivity is positive and significant in high technology manufacturing sectors in China. A one percent increase in R&D expenditure leads to a 0.280 percent revenue increase in the electronic and telecommunications equipment sector (ETE). In the medical equipment and meters sector (MEM), the pharmaceuticals sector (Ps), and the aircraft and spacecraft sector (AS), it is 0.362 percent, 0.240 percent, and 0.174 percent respectively. Meanwhile, the output elasticity of R&D expenditure in the ETE in the Eastern Coastal Region is 1.39 times that in the Inner Region. It shows that the constant R&D investment leads to greater efficiency in converting R&D expenditures into productivity.

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In Japan, open data is needed to work for “solving social challenges”, but it is ambiguous how open data solve social issues and how it should be used by stakeholders, especially citizens.
By reviewing domestic and international articles through using a text mining tool, we overview the trends of research topics of open data articles. Through this review, we propose that it is necessary for local governments to support citizen initiatives and to design incentives for using open data.

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The 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Winter Games was aimed at the world’s best ICT Olympics and the world’s first 5G Olympics, not only using ICT(AI, IoT, VR, 4K, 5G) for the operation of the Olympic Games, but also making sports games more enjoyable and convenient for players and visitors. The Organizing Committee also tried to hold a safe and secure the Olympic Games using ICT. But a cyber attack occurred on the first day. The attack targeted the official homepage. It didn’t make a significant impact on the Olympic Games, but users were confused. Were the cyber security measures at the Pyeongchang Olympics effective against cyber attack? Prevention, accident, and resilience measures were taken into consideration. As a result, it was found that the separation between the Worldwide Partner and Local Partner specific to the Olympic Games might well make a difference in cyber security measures and provide the possibility of a cyber attack.

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