On July 25, 2016, the author documents organized online harassment that sabotaged searches for his book The Turntable of Civilization, including reverse-SEO attacks, defamatory blogs under multiple handles, and platform negligence (notably on Goo, an NTT subsidiary). He explains how the Personal Information Protection Law and SEO market practices enable criminals, recounts technical findings with an SE (including CTU/8080 attack traces and proxies through international servers), describes filing complaints with police and hiring lawyers, and urges victims to preserve evidence and file criminal complaints. The piece is both a technical exposé and a moral indictment of platforms and policies that facilitate digital wrongdoing.

July 25, 2016

There were two incidents that morning—both early, very early.

I thought to myself: This fellow is up to something at such an early hour; he’s clearly scheming to reduce my search counts.

Google, too, is a company that, by publicly promoting trivialities such as “SEO measures” for its own profit, encourages the evil that spreads across the Internet.
It has aided criminals, who have been using vicious reverse-SEO tactics and various other schemes, and it has left those crimes unchecked.

I believe Europe was right to take a hard line with Google.

You cannot compare Google to those who invented the World Wide Web and published it for humanity free of charge, or to Ken Sakamura, who created TRON without any thought of making even a single yen of profit; Google is simply a profit-seeking corporation.

When I returned from Kyoto and tried to log into Goo, I could not log in.
Again, I thought, and searched for “Turntable of Civilization.”
Like the first time this month, searches that had previously shown Ameba, Amazon, and Goo now showed Goo completely erased.

When I thought it a shame to have tens of thousands of photographs—mostly of Kyoto—sitting unused on my PC, I learned about PIXTA.
I applied.
After a long screening, roughly half of the twenty images I submitted passed review and were published.
Following PIXTA’s recommendation, I announced this on my blog.

Immediately, the aforementioned criminal—using his real name that had been hidden somewhere—pasted a blog that obstructed my work and defamed “Akutagawa Kenji” under a photo of that pen name on Twitter.

The lawyer we had hired was not of the PC generation; he hated the Internet and told me that cybercrime should be handled by a younger attorney.
I consulted the Bar Association, was referred to a younger lawyer, and filed a criminal complaint with the Osaka prefectural police.

At the same time, I changed the name “Akutagawa Kenji.”

When I phoned that lawyer, he answered that evening.
“Regarding the inability to log into your site, do you know any systems engineers? Have one of them investigate the cause,” he said.
“I don’t have any acquaintances,” I replied.

I called one person who came to mind, but he did not answer—presumably at a company drinking party.
Then I called another, a company president and close friend of thirty years.

“This man was basically a door-to-door salesman,” he said after reading the criminal record posted online.
We were so angry that we had not even read the details closely.

“Something about soliciting solar-power systems door to door…”
“Yes—when he used to come around our office he would say things like that.”

The next morning I received an early-morning reply.
“There is only one SE in the company who can deal with this, so it might be impossible today,” he said.

I explained my situation and ended the call.
Shortly thereafter I received another call: he would come at three o’clock.

“This is terrible. I’ve never seen anything like this in a household,” he said.

From my hospital bed I had decided to publish The Turntable of Civilization and announced it on my blog; then I remembered this man’s criminal acts that began on June 1, 2011.
Search results for “Turntable of Civilization” and “Akutagawa Kenji” were filled, page after page, with unreadable defamation and business-obstruction content.

The publisher, Kinokuniya Umeda, and I were certain that a certain number of copies would sell.
But the first book by an unknown author was dealt a fatal blow by the relentless malice of those who carry the DNA of that “bottomless evil” and “plausible lies.”

It is obvious to anyone that The Turntable of Civilization should not be written in an environment where such criminals live in comfort.

This time, I broke Kūkai’s precept and set down my pen.

The SE’s work revealed things to me that I had never known before.
Although I have long used NTT, I learned about CTU settings for the first time.

When we clicked on the “illegal login” item in that tool and observed the attacks, the SE was stunned.

“This 8080 port is for trying to peep into the target PC; FTP is for trying to steal files…,” he explained.

I learned for the first time that one could identify certain things from the attacker’s IP address.

But the fact that the traffic is routed through servers in South Africa, Brazil, Poland, China, and within Japan so that identity cannot be immediately determined is the same trick used by Chinese cyber units when they attack the Japanese government or corporations.

“From here on, we must get the police involved.”

Needless to say, I immediately called the Osaka prefectural police.

Fortunately, the detective assigned was of the PC generation and had no aversion to computers, and the Osaka police opened an investigation the next day.

A search of the Internet reveals that many people have suffered similar damage.

My message to victims is this: do not resign yourselves to suffering in silence.

All Internet service providers have software similar to the CTU setting; you should immediately print out evidence and file a criminal complaint with the police cybercrime unit.

Unless everyone files complaints, this unbelievable evil will not be eradicated.

At the same time, corporations such as Google, which let such people do as they please and leave them unpunished, are contemptible.

The SE also knew clearly how searches for my “Turntable of Civilization” entry on Goo had been removed from results.

“The attackers take the target’s title and text—the title or copy of whatever they want to bury—and paste it deliberately into vile blogs that search robots deem low-grade. The quickest way is to paste it into adult-video blogs. The target’s search ranking will fall and fall; eventually it disappears from search results.”

As happened twice this month, pages get pushed so far back that they appear only on the last pages—pages nobody ever sees.

Anyone would assume only people with the DNA of that “bottomless evil” and “plausible lies” would commit such acts.

No decent person would conceive of something like this.

And yet Google encourages the ridiculous thing called SEO, and that very practice has increased these criminal acts based on reverse-SEO.

When I announced the publication of The Turntable of Civilization from my hospital bed on my blog, exactly that happened.

What a contemptible corporation—making enormous money while encouraging evil.

The SE was absolutely right.

The final page where Goo had once listed the search result for “Turntable of Civilization” contained a blog that had pasted my book title but was a North Korean “XXX blog”—a title bearing the name of a female sex organ—so the villainy is beyond description.

At the same time, companies like Google that allow and ignore such people are truly contemptible.
The SE was stunned at the reality of these crimes.

Thanks to physicians from Kyoto University’s medical school and nurses, to whom I am forever indebted, I fully recovered and was discharged in December 2011.
After that, together with our company’s executive director, I visited the above-mentioned lawyer who hated the Internet.

Although the lawyer disliked the Internet, when I explained the crimes that had targeted searches for “Turntable of Civilization” and “Akutagawa Kenji,” he said, “This is atrocious. This is not a matter for mere lawyers. You must go and file a complaint with the police immediately. I will draft the complaint right now.”

I recall that moment vividly.

I felt that this crime was even more vicious than the previous acts.

It did take more than a year and a half, but the detectives performed admirably and the case went to the prosecutors.
However, the prosecution was deceived by documents the criminal had forged and left the case on hold.

If the prosecutors can be deceived, then it is no wonder ordinary people are easily fooled by those who possess the DNA of “plausible lies” and “bottomless evil.”

There are countless examples of the world being easily deceived: the comfort-women story, forced labor, the Nanjing Massacre—these are all instances that have fooled many.

This time, only the International Court of Justice did not fall for deception.

It is also true that some countries have aligned with “plausible lies” and “bottomless evil” for economic reasons.

They have been tempted by money, and we can say that the fact Google and NTT subsidiaries aid the evil is ultimately the same kind of collusion.

In their cases, greed and irresponsibility are hidden under the cloak of laws such as the Personal Information Protection Law, which they use to encourage and expand wrongdoing.

In other words, they assist evil—and yet they pride themselves as large corporations.

Talking with the SE, I immediately understood why the top results on Goo, Ameba, and almost all blog platforms are full of the lowest-quality content.

Anyone writing blogs knows that their IP address is practically exposed.

In the case where I could not log into Goo because of the criminal acts described above, the SE fixed it instantly by turning the NTT modem’s power off and on.

If you have suffered similar damage, try cutting power to your modem once; it may resolve the issue.

Then immediately run a CTU search, capture evidence of the illegal logins, print it out, and rush to file a police complaint.

Seeing this reality, anyone would say, “This is terrible.”

The SE told me about software used for SEO—programs such as “Renda-kun” and another tool whose name I forget. He understood the whole system.

Talking with the SE, I understood at once why the top spots on Goo, Ameba, and similar blog sites are often occupied by the most sordid posts: they are the result of either paid SEO or DIY SEO.

The SE said, “You know how offers come in: ‘I’ll sell you followers for so much,’ or ‘I can increase your followers for X amount.’ That’s all SEO.”

Google has spread such nonsense around the world.

And it has also spread the criminals who exploit it.

If odd followers—generally adult-related—suddenly show up on your Twitter, take it as a sign you are under attack by criminals.

This world is not merely foolish and trivial; it is a place where unforgivable evil resides.
Site operators and search companies must never forget that.

Google must reflect on having sown seeds of evil worldwide, and if the voices of victims reach it, it must act immediately to address and fix the problem.

If it does not, then I have no hesitation in supporting the European idea that Google should be shut out of the market or hit with massive fines.

— (End)