The additional flexibility announced Thursday is likely to raise fears that Twitter’s commitment to free speech may be weakening as the short-messaging company expands into new countries in an attempt to broaden its audience and make more money.

But Twitter sees the censorship tool as a way to ensure individual messages, or “tweets,” remain available to as many people as possible while it navigates a gauntlet of different laws around the world.

Before, when Twitter erased a tweet it disappeared throughout the world. Now, a tweet containing content breaking a law in one country can be taken down there and still be seen elsewhere.

Twitter will post a censorship notice whenever a tweet is removed. That’s similar to what Internet search leader Google Inc. has been doing for years when a law in a country where its service operates requires a search result to be removed.

Like Google, Twitter also plans to the share the removal requests it receives from governments, companies and individuals at the chillingeffects.org website.

The similarity to Google’s policy isn’t coincidental. Twitter’s general counsel is Alexander Macgillivray, who helped Google draw up its censorship policies while he was working at that company.

“One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user’s voice,” Twitter wrote in a blog post. “We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can’t. The tweets must continue to flow.”

Twitter, which is based in San Francisco, is tweaking its approach now that its nearly 6-year-old service has established itself as one of the world’s most powerful megaphones. Daisy chains of tweets already have played instrumental roles in political protests throughout the world, most notably in the uprising that overthrew Egypt’s government a year ago.

It’s a role that Twitter has embraced, but the company came up with the new filtering technology in recognition that it will likely be forced to censor more tweets as it pursues an ambitious agenda. Among other things, Twitter wants to expand its audience from about 100 million active uses now, to more than 1 billion.

Reaching that goal will require expanding into more countries, which will mean Twitter will be more likely to have to submit to laws that run counter to the free-expression protections guaranteed under the First Amendment in the U.S.

If Twitter defies a law in a country where it has employees, those people could be arrested. That’s one reason Twitter is unlikely to try to enter China, where its service is currently block. Google for several years agreed to censor its search results in China to gain better access to the country’s vast population, but stopped that practice two years after engaging in a high-profile showdown with Chain’s government. Google now routes its Chinese search results through Hong Kong, where the censorship rules are less restrictive.

In its Thursday blog post, Twitter said it hadn’t yet used its ability to wipe out tweets in an individual country. All the tweets it has previously censored were wiped out throughout the world. Most of those included links to child pornography.

The MPD arrested 38-year-old Yasuhiro Kawaguchi of Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture, at his home Sunday immediately after investigators confirmed he was storing the virus in question on his personal computer.

The revised Penal Code, which was enforced July 14, bans storage of a computer virus for the purpose of infecting other computers. Violators can be sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison or fined up to 300,000 yen.

The virus found on Kawaguchi’s computer works by repeatedly copying vast amounts of graphic elements and files on a computer, causing it to freeze or malfunction, according to the MPD.

The MPD suspects about 2,000 users of file-sharing software have been infected with the virus.

According to the MPD, it was the first case in the country after the revised Penal Code, which also prohibits the creation and distribution of viruses, was put into force this month.

Kawaguchi uploaded a file containing the virus, which was titled to suggest child pornography, to the Internet via the file-sharing software Share. People who downloaded the file and opened it on their computers, or activated a DVD onto which the file was saved, would cause their computers to be infected, according to the MPD.

Kawaguchi, unemployed, admitted storing the virus and told the MPD that he did it to punish people who use file-sharing software, according to the MPD.

===

Police able to act quickly

The charge of storing a computer virus without a legitimate reason has been applied for the first time, on the basis of the revised Penal Code, thanks to a cyber-patrol investigation by the MPD.

The investigation found that a file containing the virus had been distributed on the Internet via a file-sharing software called Share.

As MPD investigators searched Kawaguchi’s home, the virus was found stored on his personal computer. He was caught immediately and arrested.

“Thanks to the revised Penal Code, we were able to take quick action, preventing the virus from causing more harm” said a senior MPD official.

Before the revision of the law, there was no law that enabled police to directly keep surveillance on virus creators, leaving police to catch virus creators using various laws and ordinances, including the Copyright Law, or by applying charges of property destruction.

On Wednesday, the Tokyo District Court sentenced a man to two years and six months in prison without suspension on charges of property destruction for creating a computer virus that replaced files on infected computers, destroying the original files.

The latest virus would not damage data on infected computers, but would cause a glitch in their operation.

“It might have been difficult to apply the charge of property destruction in this case,” the senior MPD official said.

“In the past, we came up with different strategies using various laws and regulations,” said another senior MPD official. “With many new types of viruses constantly appearing on the Internet, we were unable to keep up. Now, the revised Penal Code will become a powerful weapon.”

Kawaguchi told police that he started creating viruses in about 2007, and police believe he created the latest virus. However, police plan to build a case against him on the charge of storing the virus, rather than creating it, as it was created before the revised law took effect.

Japan’s number of known child pornography victims surged by half last year, data showed Thursday, a new record in a country where it is legal to possess sexually explicit images of children.
Despite its production and distribution being outlawed, Japan is seen as a major global source of child pornography in photo and video form, and authorities have stepped up efforts to contain the problem.
The National Police Agency on Thursday said law enforcers took action in 1,342 child porn cases last year, up 43.5 percent from the previous year, to reach a new record since such data was first compiled in 2000.
A total of 618 children under 18 were recorded as having fallen victim to pornographic exploitation, up 52.6 percent, police said.
The widespread availability of online child pornography in Japan is further fueling the problem in a country where general crime levels are low.
The data found that the Internet was the medium for spreading child porn in 783 cases, accounting for almost 60 percent of the total.
Japan and Russia are the only members of the G8 group of industrialised nations where the possession of child porn remains legal. It is banned and subject to penalties in more than 70 countries.
The police agency also said that registered cases of child abuse in Japan, including beatings and neglect, in 2010 increased 5.7 percent from the previous year to 354 cases. The number of known victims rose 4.3 percent to 362, of whom 33 died.
Both figures were the highest since such data was first compiled in 1999.
Campaigners this month renewed their calls for the government to clamp down on child pornography.
“As consumption is not criminalized, demand is always going up,” said Junko Miyamoto of non-profit group ECPAT/STOP Japan. “Also, the content of child pornography is getting worse, more cruel.”
The head of the Polaris Project, a US-based anti-human trafficking group, last week told Japanese lawmakers that “significant percentages of the images involve children being gagged, bound, tied with ropes or even blindfolded”.
Keiji Goto, head of lawyers’ group the Forum Against Child Pornography, pointed to growing public support for restricting child porn but said: “The problem is that such voices are not reflected in political decisions.”

Japanese police handled a record 1,342 cases of child pornography in 2010, a 44-percent jump over the previous year, the National Police Agency said.

The figure represented an all-time high for the third consecutive year.

About 60 percent of the cases involved the Internet, with such cases posting a ninefold increase over a decade, officials said.

Meantime, child abuse cases handled by police grew 6 percent from 2009 to 354 incidents, the fifth consecutive year of annual increase.

The surges reflect intensifying police action on crimes against children, particularly amid growing international pressure for Japan to act against child pornography.

By type, 624 cases involved production of child pornography, up 42 percent from the previous year; 496 cases involved display of pornographic materials on the Internet, up 59 percent; and 108 cases involved distribution such as sales to specific individuals, up 52 percent.

The cases involved pornographic materials involving children under age 18. A total 618 children under age 18 were victimized in the cases, 53 percent more than in the previous year.

Thirty-three of the victims were preschool children, nearly four times the number of such young children victimized in 2009, while 93 were of elementary school age, an 80 percent increase from the previous year’s count.

The findings suggested younger children were being targeted.

In some cases, the parents were responsible for photographing and distributing images of their own children.

Child abuse at home also rose, with 387 guardians subject to investigation in alleged child abuse cases, up 9 percent from 2009.

The number of abuse cases that resulted in death of the child or children reached 29, or 16 percent up from the previous year.

In seven out of 10 abuse cases, male guardians were the abusers, while 30 percent were female guardians.

While a majority of the female abusers were the biological mother, in the case of male abusers, adoptive fathers, stepfathers, or the mother’s common-law husband outnumbered biological fathers by 40 percent.

Of total abuse cases, 99 were reported to police by family or acquaintances, 79 were reported by child consultation centers and 40 were reported by neighbors, double the number in 2009.

The Asahi Shimbun Digital Feb 26, 2011

According to the Internet Hotline Center, an organization working in collaboration with the National Police Agency, in 2009 there were some 4,400 cases in which child pornography images were posted, about 2.2 times more than in 2008. In December, the IHC asked site or server operators to remove 90 images; of those, 23 of them remained as of early June.

Child pornography images can spread easily on the Net because they can be copied easily. They can remain semi-permanently, tormenting victims for many years. In addition, people possessing child porn cannot be punished in Japan.

To cope with the spread of child pornography images on the Internet, a working group of nine ministries and agencies, including the NPA and the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, has proposed blocking Internet access to child pornography images as soon as they are detected. Under the proposal, if the NPA or the IHC finds child pornography images, they would provide relevant information to a body that would compile a list of Net addresses for problematic sites. The body would give the list to Net service providers, which would then block access to such images.

Child pornography sites with servers located abroad would also be subject to this measure. Ordinary police action against child pornography sites takes time because the police have to collect evidence and identify suspects. Compared with this, Net access blocking can be done in a short time and its effect will be great.

Blocking Net access could infringe on constitutionally guaranteed rights of freedom of expression and secrecy of communication. The type of technology for access blocking — whether to block access to specific files or to sites themselves — must be discussed. Criteria for compiling lists of problematic Web sites must leave no room for arbitrariness and ensure impartiality.

The Japan Times ONLINE June 28, 2010

“I still love him,” the thirty-something told the judge at Tokyo District Court after he was asked about his feelings toward his 13-year-old victim.

As details emerged over the course of the hearing on June 7, however, it was clear that the suspect’s feelings for the boy he is accused of abusing were very different.

“You need to see a specialist,” the judge would later tell Okuno.

Catching Okuno would not have been possible without the help of the Polaris Project, which works to combat abuse, trafficking and sexual exploitation.

After a tipoff from the Japan branch of the NGO, Okuno and an accomplice were arrested by police in March on charges of committing indecent acts with a minor and producing child pornography.

“Our source knew Okuno and knew that he had been approached others and asked for help in making real child pornography,” Jake Adelstein, the author of “Tokyo Vice” and a board member at the Polaris Project, told The Japan Times. “He approached me because he was afraid to go to the police and have his name come up in court. He asked me to write about these people because he thought they were horrible. He argued that the pornography crossed the line between fantasy and reality, and that the people making these videos had crossed a line.

“(The source) gave us a detailed description of the people involved and he gave us video evidence against them. Once we knew the videos were made recently — they showed Japanese kids and Japanese men — we put all of the evidence in the shape and the form that the police would write it.”

That the police then acted, however, was a rare achievement in Japan, where it is legal to possess child pornography.

“One of the problems we faced was that the police needed to know that Okuno was doing more than possessing pornography,” Adelstein says. “But because we were a third-person source, rather than first- person, if he was just possessing child pornography and not sharing it, then a judge would not issue the police a warrant.”

The evidence from the Polaris source proved to be enough to open an investigation, however, and the police arrested Okuno along with Mr. O, a special-education teacher at a school in Shizuoka Prefecture to whom he had sold the sexual services of his 13-year-old victim.

Adelstein became involved in Polaris after encountering the group during his time working undercover for an investigation by Shared Hope International (which was sponsored by the U.S. State Department), and was subsequently asked to become a board member. “Last year, Polaris became an official NPO and I was asked to join the board of directors, which is something I was reluctant to do, because I have had such unpleasant experiences in the field.”

Eventually, however, he decided that the skills he could offer meant he should join the organization. “I am good at making sure things are not sensationalized and dealing with the cops.”

In court, it was alleged that the following occurred: Okuno had first met the boy around May 2009. At initial meetings, the child had cleaned Okuno’s house. Okuno then convinced the child to have his photos taken wearing a swimsuit. He later sold the pictures and the swimsuit online.

After this, the prosecution alleges he started to slowly push the boy deeper into performing sexual acts in exchange for money. On a salary of just ¥100,000 to ¥110,000 a month, however, Okuno soon found he needed more funds to be able to continue paying his victim. He then introduced the child to Mr. O, who paid Okuno ¥40,000 each time he met the victim. The victim was paid ¥10,000 by Okuno for each encounter with Mr. O.

In court on June 7, the prosecutor asked Okuno what he had done with the remaining profit.

“I spent all the money on the boy,” Okuno replied.

This way, the victim was tied into a perpetual system of exploitation by the suspect, the prosecution claims. Without the help of Polaris’ source, Okuno’s alleged exploitation could still be continuing to this day.

“This sort of thing is happening in Japan and not many people know about it. People need to know something this bad is happening in Japan,” Polaris’ source told The Japan Times on condition of anonymity. He added, however, that the arrest of Okuno was a small victory.

“The case of Okuno is really the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot more people involved in child pornography, and we want to expose them, but they will not be caught until we have much stronger evidence. There have probably been around 50 kids harmed because of this group, some as young as elementary school age. It is impossible to say how many offenders there were, but Okuno was probably nowhere near the top of the group.”

The difficulties of catching the criminals, due in large part to the fact that possession of child pornography is legal in Japan, have been noted by the United States.

“Child pornography investigations inevitably involve more than one country. Law enforcement officials from the United States and around the world enjoy tremendous cooperation from Japanese police on a wide variety of issues, but international investigations of child pornography are significantly hampered by the inability of Japanese investigators to participate or contribute their expertise,” wrote former U.S. Ambassador to Japan J. Thomas Schieffer in a 2008 article in the Yomiuri Shimbun.

For Polaris, the work of helping to catch abusers of children will continue, along with its battle against human trafficking. The organization sees the two crimes as linked.

“Child abuse can be physical abuse, sexual abuse or neglect, it happens anywhere,” Polaris Japan director Shihoko Fujiwara tells The Japan Times. “The kids (that are abused) are especially vulnerable though, because they don’t have anybody to protect them. I meet a lot of kids who survive by selling their body because that is how they have to survive. Those kids who are abused are easy targets for traffickers, whose aim is huge profit from sexual exploitation.”

Fujiwara says that the Japan branch of the organization, which is run by two full-time staff, a part-time worker and around 22 volunteers, helped around 35 to 40 victims escape sexual exploitation at the hands of traffickers last year. In addition to this, the organization helps to train employees in fields such as teaching, social work and law enforcement on the dangers and signs of trafficking.

“We trained about 3,000 of those people last year, and now they invite us to talk, because they don’t know what’s happening on the street,” Fujiwara says.

In order to continue this work, however, the NGO needs donations. A leaflet produced to spread awareness of the organization says that a ¥5,000 donation can be used to train 10 people about trafficking, while ¥10,000 can fund the NGO’s crisis hotline for a month and ¥100,000 can provide long-term support to five victims.

The Okuno case offers a clear example of the type of role NGOs can play in helping bridge the gap between law enforcement and those who may feel unable to approach the authorities, particularly considering the privacy concerns in such delicate cases.

“I wasn’t afraid to approach Polaris. I knew they would protect my privacy, I don’t think the police would have,” the source in the case said.

In extreme cases, privacy can even mean the difference between life and death. Besides the close-knit groups that practice child abuse, the movies and images also act as an income stream for the yakuza, even if many in the mob do not appreciate their counterparts’ involvement in the trade.

“There is a hierarchy of moral values in the yakuza world: trafficking women and child pornography are very low, very bad,” Adelstein says. “And then there’s (bar) hosts. They think of hosts as the scum of the earth. In terms of the yakuza though, anyone who is involved in child pornography — not the distribution, but are actually in it or are molesting kids — they are dead meat. I know one case of a guy who molested a 4-year-old girl in a neighborhood where (the yakuza) were present and they chopped his arm off and dropped him off at the hospital.”

As Japan’s manga culture has grown from a domestic industry in the days of family-friendly heroes such as Astro Boy to a global phenomenon, disturbing questions about the subgenre that depicts the rape and degradation of schoolchildren and the links between abuse in the worlds of fantasy and reality have become ever more urgent to address.

Speaking of the connection between manga and anime culture and abuse earlier this year, Adelstein said, “(Pedophiles) use manga to convince the kids that (sexual abuse) is a normal way of expressing affection.”

People in the manga industry, however, sees things very differently.

“If you believe that manga is a form of child pornography,” said one person in the industry, “then you must think Japan is a capital for it. But if you look at such crimes as rape, Japan’s levels seem to be lower than some other countries, even though some manga feature this. I don’t think the connection between manga and the crimes pedophiles commit is so strong.”

The industry says that the indulgence in fantasy can keep people from practicing their desires in reality, in effect preventing the harm of others.

However, working constantly on the frontline with women who are abused, Fujiwara questions the popular concept that there are no victims when sexual abuse is portrayed in manga.

“There was a person, a survivor of sexual exploitation, who said that if they saw this sort of manga all their bad memories came flooding back. I think this is a good point. There are victims from this sort of manga.”

She adds that this hurt can also be felt with real child pornography, which can be impossible to erase from the Internet.

The trial of an alleged pedophile marks a significant victory for those campaigning to see the exploitation of the vulnerable end in Japan. But it does not mark the end.

The case also casts a harsh light on the links between abuse in manga and the real world in a way few have before, and asks uncomfortable questions about Japan’s role in the distribution of pornography involving minors and global efforts to combat the abuse of children.

By RICHARD SMART

Okuno’s trial continues on June 22. Polaris Project Japan: polarisproject.jp/engsite. Send comments on this issue and story ideas to community@japantimes.co.jp

June 15th, 2010 Japan Times Online