NPA: 2channel 'facilitating' drug trafficking
Site ignored 97% of requests to delete dubious posts
Kyodo
Japan's biggest Internet bulletin board service,
2channel, failed to act on 97 percent of official requests that it
delete dubious or illicit postings last year, the National Police Agency
said Thursday.
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The Internet Hotline Center, set up by the agency
to monitor illicit Web activity and ask site administrators to remove
such posts, issued 5,223 requests to 2channel last year, of which 5,068,
or around 97 percent, were not complied with.
Most of the dubious messages involved trade
in amphetamines and other drugs, while others could result in banking
and mobile phone fraud, an agency official said, warning unless 2channel
removes them they "could lead to serious crimes."
The center sent out 5,381 deletion requests to
various site administrators last year, meaning 2channel accounted for
the vast majority.
"With such posts left on its bulletin board,
the site is indirectly facilitating the creation of an environment in
which drugs can easily be traded," the NPA official said.
The site has its own internal guidelines on
deleting posts, such as those it deems slanderous. Other messages are
removed following court orders.
However, 2channel has never disclosed its
criteria for deleting posts that may involve trade in illegal narcotics
and that often use special code to trade drugs, such as "shiro" (white)
for amphetamines and "yasai" (vegetable) for marijuana.
On its website, 2channel states that it has an
internal team of authorized volunteers that removes posts, and that it
also accepts external deletion requests through its site or via email.
But an NPA official said it is unclear whether the service provider's system is working correctly.
"We don't believe all of 2channel is bad," the
official said. "But there may be blind spots. We just want them to make
improvements."
Not all posters get off scot-free, however.
In November, police in Kanagawa and Kagawa
prefectures arrested 11 people for allegedly soliciting amphetamine
buyers via 2channel, in violation of the Stimulants Control Law. The
suspects are thought to have pocketed around ¥40 million by selling the
drugs to some 1,000 clients since last May.
The center received 182,757 reports of
alleged illicit online activity from the public in 2011, of which a
record 36,573 concerned suspected drug dealing.
The number of 2channel users and the forum's
importance have soared since it was founded in 1999 by Hiroyuki
Nishimura, who was studying in Arkansas at the time.
The authorities and businesses monitor the
site's hundreds of boards and thousands of threads — spanning a vast
array of fields and topics — to pick up on everything from the latest
fashion and technological trends to anonymous tips on murder threats.
Its scope and influence have on occasion
propelled it into the realm of bullying, with angry users ganging up and
hacking or crashing other websites.
