"This guy is like totally reading a dirty magazine on the train," the high school student's tweet read. Accompanying the tweet was a photo a man, his legs pressed close as he read a magazine. The tweet, and the visible photo of his face set off a flurry of comments online in Japan. This man was not guilty, complained some net users. And they attempted to prove it. Then, they went too far.
The magazine in the man's hands might not be an adult magazine. 2ch commenters seem to have proved that the mag is Kindai Mahjong, which isn't pornography. This is the same mahjong magazine in which pro-gamer Daigo Umehara's manga appears. Excite News reports that the high school girl who tweeted the photo perhaps saw the dating advertisements on the mag's back and confused the publication with a porno rag.
Besides tracking down the magazine's street date, here's how it was "proven" that this was an issue of Kindai Mahjong and not an adult publication:
Some on 2ch felt that the schoolgirl's tweet was defamatory. It probably was. What if his boss saw it? His co-workers? He's done nothing wrong, it seems.
Since the photo brought so much attention to this man, 2ch began to snoop about her Twitter. On her page and her friends', 2ch found proof, much of it photographic, of what looked like underage drinking, smoking, and cheating in school—as well as shoplifting. In Japan, Twitter users who do things—legal or illegal—which end up coming back and biting them in the ass are called "bakattaa" (バカッター). It's a word play on "Twitter" and the Japanese for "stupid", which is "baka" (馬鹿 or バカ). Much of what was discovered seemed like that; however, it also seemed like dumb stuff kids do that's a normal part of growing up.
Further snooping turned up the teen's name, her high school, and where her part time job was.
"Aren't you all going overboard? lulz" asked one commenter on 2ch. It was like the teen was running for political office, and 2ch was finding out every single secret (and truth) they could on her, saying it was payback for "violating the right to use someone's likeness". (In Japan, there are laws about privacy that cross over into taking photos without someone's permission.) Yet, the thread was clearly violating this schoolgirl's privacy in perhaps a far more probing and even frightening way.
During all of this, the teen deleted her Twitter account and is probably steering clear of the internet. Excite News, one of Japan's biggest news sites, recounted the incident just days ago, so this isn't exactly something one can escape—especially with her photos and tweets saved somewhere online.
The internet is a powerful being. Sometimes it helps clear the wrongly accused. Sometimes itself does the accusing, rightly or wrongly.
女子高生「電車内なのに真顔でエロ本よんでる人がいる^ ^」 [Excite News]
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