Fantia, the “content creator support” platform operated by Japanese comic publisher Toranoana, recently announced a major revision of its mosaic and censorship guidelines for adult content. Starting May 25, creators will have to follow stricter rules when it comes to censoring the explicit elements of their content, and the platform’s review process itself will become “more rigorous.”
This revision will be effective retroactively, meaning that it will also affect works submitted in the past, and creators who don’t comply to the guidelines past the designated date may be requested to make corrections to the “problematic” content or straight-up delete it. Those who fail to comply and continue making similar offenses will have their accounts suspended or taken down, and in extreme cases, the platform may file a report to the police or other relevant authorities.
Fantia is a subscription-based platform similar to Patreon where various creators, from illustrators and novelists to cosplayers and musicians, can share their services with their fans. The platform offers customizable monthly membership plans and tiers, and can also be used for commissions and selling merchandise.
According to Fantia’s administrators, in recent years, the platform has been receiving “extremely strict feedback from various relevant organizations,” criticizing their censorship guidelines from a legal perspective. They also cite multiple cases of crackdowns and convictions related to insufficient mosaic censorship. Consequently, the platform decided to tighten their regulations in order to “prevent creators from being unintentionally exposed to legal risks.”
As for what the regulations actually entail – the platform will require creators to modify their content so that the shape and texture of the mosaic, blur or solid color censorship make the object underneath it undiscernible. Furthermore, transparent mosaics, light blurring, or censorship that doesn’t fully cover the object will be deemed inadequate for the platform.
Creators of video content have it a bit more difficult, as Fantia requested them to specifically apply “stronger and more thorough mosaic censorship compared to still images.” According to the platform, this is because videos tend to carry a higher risk of making a blunder in the editing process (when it comes to elements that are constantly moving, it’s easy to for them to end up “peeking through” the mosaic).
On the other hand, the creators and users of the platform seem to be far from happy to receive this news. Considering that Fantia launched in May 2016, there are creators who have years, if not a full decade’s worth of work that needs to be reviewed and possibly revised to comply with the new regulations. And while it is yet to be seen how this will affect creators once the new regulations are fully in effect, many are also concerned about what this could mean for the future of other platforms that distribute adult content.
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