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Charges Dropped Against 2ch Founder Hiroyuki Nishimura
posted on by Egan Loo
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office dropped the drug sale abetting charges against 2channel (2ch) message board founder Hiroyuki Nishimura on Tuesday. The Japanese Metropolitan Police Department had filed charges against Nishimura in December for allegedly encouraging and backing the buying and selling of illegal drugs.
The police had accused Nishimura of not deleting messages used in the sale of drugs. While the prosecutors did not explain why the charges were dropped, a source told Jiji Press that Nishimura's culpablility for not deleting the messages was low. In addition, 2channel did voluntarily delete the messages later, after authorities searched 10 premises linked to 2channel last March.
On May 7, 2011, a 55-year-old man in his 50s posted coded messages for selling 0.2 grams of stimulants for 10,000 yen (about US$100) on 2channel. 2channel did not delete the messages when the staff was initially aware of the messages. The man was later given a jail sentence.
2channel was created in 1999 as a forum in where users could anonymously write about their views on various topics. Nishimura is no longer an administrator of 2channel.
Source: Jiji Press via Hachima Kikō
