A Mechanism for Sharing Public Policy Relating to the Internet

 The problem started from incorrect content and suspected copyright infringement discovered on a site curated by DeNA, and one after another, CyberAgent, Recruit, KDDI, etc. began hiding or unpublishing the site.

 It is impossible to reach an agreement between the responsibilities of new companies doing business in gray areas, and the public and public institutions.

 10 years ago, when the net safety of young people became an issue, and 5 years ago, when social gaming became an issue, the same IT companies demanded the same response from the same developing businesses.

 But this time the difference is that, instead of government intervention, net users themselves are doing the denouncing. Since there has been no involvement from government, businesses have let their guard down, and let this turn into a much bigger issue. 

 The private sector has attempted to weather the storm through self-regulation, by creating the Japan Internet Safety Promotion Association and the EMA during the young people safety issue, and the Japan Social Game Association during the social gaming issue. I participated in these efforts, pouring my own sweat and tears into coordinating them. We are still working to get over these hurdles. It is important for the industry to show that it can cleanse itself.

The same applies to measures against comment brigading. The New Media Risk Association that was formed in 2012 to promote joint measures between the public and private sectors took a similar approach.

In this case, each company took independent action to close down the site, but we should also demand a response from the industry as a whole. The National Assembly and the administration also consider it a problem, after all.

 For example, if the industry is giving serious thought to how to deal with copyright issues, wouldn’t it be better to begin putting money into a fund to compensate users for their legal expenses?

 Or wouldn’t it be better for the industry to prepare another mechanism such as alternative dispute resolution for cases that don’t reach the level of litigation?

 The sharing economy also has similar aspects. It is a business model that operates in a gray area of business regulations while making use of common resources. While the gray nature of it is what makes it popular, some problems can be anticipated, and along with requiring self-regulation from the private sector, the government is also considering joint measures.

 However, it may not do any good to deal with specific problems with specific industry measures and self-regulations. The importance of the Internet is only going to increase. More specific problems like this are sure to develop in the future. This is the time to come up with some general measures.

 The problems with businesses using the Internet are not limited to so-called IT companies. As Internet user businesses shift to become more technologically advanced, the number of stakeholders will grow, and so will the number of challenges. This is why it’s difficult to settle on a one-size-fits-all solution.

 However, for this reason, a comprehensive private mechanism is required that would allow telecommunications companies and IT companies to cooperate on public policy measures while standing up to the government, so that these measures can be put in place with some flexibility.