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Shueisha Denies Involvement in Recent Twitter Copyright Takedowns

Beginning on Thursday last week, Twitter locked numerous accounts and deleted uploaded images in response to copyright claims allegedly under the name of Japanese manga publisher Shueisha. Many of the images deleted were related to Shueisha properties, in particular to the manga One Piece and Dragon Ball Super, and included fan art and cosplay photographs.

Shueisha told ANN on Wednesday that the copyright takedowns were not from Shueisha, but from a third party using the company's name without permission. Shueisha denied any involvement in the takedowns. Shueisha also issued a statement on its MANGA Plus website on Thursday, saying that it has been "falsely misrepresented by an individual" sending in copyright claims, and is currently investigating with social media platforms to decide on a course of action.

On Monday, Twitter user @newworldartur posted a document that alleged that Shueisha did not make the copyright claims, but a third party who supposedly used Shueisha's name to harass others. @newworldartur's post identified the phone number and the fax number in the claim document as belonging to Kadokawa, not Shueisha as listed.

@newworldartur's post further claimed to identify the user who sent the claims by way of correlating the name used in the claim document with a YouTuber with a similar moniker. The YouTuber allegedly threatened another YouTuber with harassment and copyright claims to coerce them into entering into a relationship.

Sources: Shueisha's statement, Manga Plus, @newworldartur