NIJISANJI is putting their foot down when it comes to the harassment of their VTuber talent, with the agency’s dedicated task force handling 88 cases across 12 months since September 2021. This includes filing legal charges against harassers and stalkers.
Harassment is everywhere in the online space, but companies are taking stances against it to protect their talents.
VTuber agency NIJISANJI has taken that one step further with a task force dedicated to stopping offensive and defamatory content, including copyright and privacy infringement, stalking, or threats of such behavior.
An announcement by NIJISANJI owners ANYCOLOR on October 14 pointed towards the task force handling 88 cases across 12 months to September 2022, including a handful of cases going to court.
According to a translation by ‘Hikaru’, the task force tried to handle things outside of the legal system, including requesting people on social media to take down harmful content such as doxxing. Once those avenues were exhausted, some were taken to court.
This includes one defamation case, which NIJISANJI is currently preparing for.
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The agency also mentioned “death threats, and other similar threats, that harm our talents will immediately be reported to police. Measures will be taken to prevent harm, such as setting up security around the talent.”
Anycolor's taskforce published a team activity report against malicious actions against their talents. I translated and summarized the most important points and outcomings here: https://t.co/cIyH5BYzXp pic.twitter.com/FiZIlxbnuq
— Hikaru~ 🐳 (@hikaru_clipper) October 14, 2022
NIJISANJI’s task force was created in September 2021 to stop harassment from boiling over in the community and protect their talents. Despite their efforts, some VTubers have taken hiatuses or graduated because of online vitriol, with Axia Krone being the most recent example.
The company issued a statement following Axia Krone’s indefinite hiatus in August saying “if we confirm any acts of slander or defamation towards our Livers and determine these acts to be criminal or illegal in nature, we will accordingly take steps while consulting with our lawyers.
“These steps may include filing a lawsuit and requesting disclosure of the sender’s information.”