In a rare legal move, a court has ordered tech giant Meta to delete an Instagram account that repeatedly posted defamatory and threatening content targeting a woman working at a hostess club in Osaka.
According to the woman’s attorney, she sought a provisional court order in April, claiming that one of her male customers had used Instagram to post malicious and threatening messages, including claims that she had defrauded him in a romance scam.
The man had published posts calling her “just a prostitute,” and made violent threats including “I’ll massacre you” and “I’ll kill you” since last August.
The Tokyo District Court found that the man’s actions had seriously violated the woman’s personal rights and that he was likely to post further harmful content.
It issued the rare order on July 1 directing Meta to delete the user’s entire Instagram account.
The man reportedly used unsaved live streams and the platform’s Stories feature that allows users to share photos and videos that automatically disappear after 24 hours.
This led the woman’s legal team to argue that the only effective solution was to delete the account entirely, rather than attempting to target the fleeting individual posts.
At its peak, the account had 167,000 followers, raising concerns that even temporary posts could be rapidly shared and amplified.
“The risk of posts spreading, even if the original ones disappear, remains real,” said Toshiaki Kawahara, the woman’s attorney. “This decision is a significant step in protecting victims of online abuse.”
Legal experts note that the decision is unusual due to concerns surrounding freedom of expression.
“Ordering an account’s deletion halts future posts as well, which is why such rulings are uncommon,” said Tomohiro Kanda, a lawyer specializing in online defamation. “In this case, the court was likely persuaded by the woman’s ability to prove that threatening posts would continue.”
Kanda also emphasized that even Stories posts can leave legal traces if victims take screenshots, warning that disappearing content does not exempt social media users from responsibility.
Previous court-ordered account deletions typically involved impersonation of celebrities or public figures, making this latest case particularly noteworthy.
AloJapan.com