The Liberal Democratic Party’s Mio Sugita, a member of the House of Representatives, accused Shiori Ito (34), a journalist who disclosed her sexual assault, of having her reputation hurt when she liked a post on Twitter (currently known as X) that defamed her. The Supreme Court’s First Petty Bench (presiding judge Ryosuke Anami) has decided to dismiss Mr. Sugita’s appeal in a lawsuit seeking 2.2 million yen in damages from a lawmaker (56). 8 dates. The Tokyo High Court’s ruling has confirmed that the act of clicking “like” is illegal and orders a person to pay 550,000 yen.
This is the first time that the Supreme Court has decided the illegality of “likes” on posts on social networking sites (SNS).
Member of the House of Representatives Mizuami Sugita (Photographed in January)
Ms. Ito had filed multiple civil lawsuits over sexual assault and slander on social media, but all of the lawsuits came to an end with the Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss Mr. Sugita’s appeal.
According to the first and second instance judgments, between June and July 2018, Ms. Sugita was a third party who slandered Ms. Ito, who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a former TBS reporter, calling her a “failed pillow business” and “an act of publicity.” Liked 25 posts.
The second instance judgment found that Mr. Sugita had “actively intended to harm the reputation of Ms. Ito by using tweets with insulting content,” based on the fact that she had repeatedly ridiculed and criticized Ms. Ito. . The Tokyo District Court of First Instance ruling that dismissed the claim was changed, and Ito’s side won the case.
Ito filed a complaint in 2015, claiming that she had been sexually assaulted by a former journalist. The Metropolitan Police Department obtained an arrest warrant for the former reporter on suspicion of quasi-rape, but the arrest was postponed at the direction of the chief of detectives and the documents were sent to prosecutors. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office decided not to indict the case because the charges were insufficient.
In a civil lawsuit filed against a former reporter, a judgment was finalized in July 2022 that recognized the victim of sexual violence and ordered him to pay approximately 3.3 million yen. A ruling has been finalized that will order manga artists who posted or reprinted stories on social media that falsely claim that they were victims of sexual violence to pay compensation. (Rieko Ota)