Yesterday, Square Enix announced that it had taken firm action against the administrator of news aggregator site Netoge Sokuhō (formerly “FF14 Sokuhō”) for publishing article(s) that harmed the reputations of its executives and employees. The incident was settled with the administrator publishing an apology, scheduling the site’s closure, and paying a settlement.
Just a day later, another blog, called Umadori Sokuhō, announced that it would cease updates and shut down. The administrators have also issued an apology to Final Fantasy XIV development and management staff.
Both Netoge Sokuhō and Umadori Sokuhō are so-called “matome” sites, which generally post “articles” created by compiling excerpts from the anonymous message board 5channel. In the case of Netoge Sokuhō, some of the content posted to the blog was determined to constitute harassment of Square Enix employees, which ultimately prompted the company to take action. However, it seems that that whoever is running Umadori Sokuhō has decided to learn from Netoge Sokuhō’s example and self-initiatively cease activities.
The statement posted on March 3 reads: “Having reconsidered the weight of responsibility involved in disseminating information online, I have decided to draw a line under this matter in my own way. To all the FF14 development and operations staff whom I have inconvenienced, I sincerely apologize.”
Much like Netoge Sokuhō, Umadori Sokuhō also features (often toxic) comment sections beneath its articles, and the latter’s administrator cites difficulties in managing abusive and defamatory comments. They note that even when banning users via IP address, smartphone users can simply change their IP address and post again, which makes rules difficult to enforce. Furthermore, news of Netoge Sokuhō shutting down likely led to an influx of readers from there, further complicating moderation. It seems that all article comment sections Umadori Sokuhō will be disabled within a few days.
