Fantia, one of Japan’s biggest digital platforms for doujinshi, games, cosplay and VTuber content, has published a statement regarding its previously announced “revised guidelines” for censorship of adult content. Following intense backlash from domestic content creators, the platform has explained that it made these changes in response to inquiries from Japanese police.
To give some background, last month, Fantia announced that it would be introducing major changes to how adult content needs to be censored on the platform. Originally encompassing both 2D artwork and live-action content, the new guidelines required creators to apply more rigorous mosaic and/or censor bars on explicit submissions. What’s more, the rules applied retroactively, meaning creators had very little time to revise years’ worth of submissions, lest they end up penalized for TOS violations.
These factors contributed to the revised guidelines being received very poorly. In response to the criticism, Fantia first walked back on the revisions partially, announcing that the new rules would not apply to 2D (non-live action) content after all. Now, a couple of weeks later, the platform has come back with an apology and provided a bit more context behind why all this happened in the first place.
As explained in the latest announcement by Fantia, the company received a notice from the police stating that certain content on the platform may constitute a violation of Article 175 of Japan’s penal code. According to this law, a person who publicly displays or distributes obscene objects such as documents, drawings or recorded media is punishable by imprisonment of up to 2 years, a fine of up to 2,500,000 yen or a petty fine, or both imprisonment and a fine. In other words, Fantia was suspected of hosting illegal content on its platform.
Taking into account past instances of arrests related to distribution of obscene material and wanting to “eliminate any possibility of illegality,” Fantia decided it should implement stricter guidelines.
One important detail to note, though, is that the inquiry from the police was related only to live-action content hosted on Fantia. However, since Article 175 applies to non-live action content such as drawings, the platform initially decided to err on the side of safety and introduce changes to how all explicit content is handled. The rushed announcement of the revisions and short-grace period for updating past submissions was also due to the platform wanting to urgently address the risk of legal violations, the statement reads.
Going forward, Fantia says it will stick to its pre-revision censorship guidelines when it comes to 2D content, while the new, stricter rules will apply to live-action content. The platform has also warned its creators that all of its guidelines are “self-regulatory standards based on our company’s independent judgment, taking into account advice from relevant authorities and social norms; they do not completely eliminate or guarantee protection against future legal risks or law enforcement actions. We ask all creators to comply with these standards and to exercise caution in their creative work and posting at their own discretion.”
