Hololive and Nijisanji Collaborate Against Slander and Defamation

In an unprecedented move, two big names in the VTuber space are collaborating to respond against slander and defamation. COVER Corp. (Hololive Production) and ANYCOLOR, Inc. (Nijisanji) released a joint statement in both Japanese and English Monday December 5th.

• While they greatly appreciate that everyone enjoys the companies' VTuber content with such warm support, they condemn the fact that their talents' reputation is unnecessarily being tarnished.
• Acts of defamation are carelessly being done on internet fora, social media and similar venues. These actions affect the emotions and mental state of the talents, which makes it difficult for them to stream.
• With the goal of protecting its talents in mind, the companies are engaged in public awareness campaigns and various strategies. Moving forward, both companies are cooperating with each other while implementing countermeasures against these actions.

The managing companies of Hololive and Nijisanji commit to share with each other the know-how to deal with cases against talents and content creators like:

• Defamation
• Breach of privacy rights
• Infringement of goodwill through acts like trolling
• Death threats
• Stalking

COVER Corp. and ANYCOLOR, Inc. are working together on various other countermeasures, including taking legal action (related to cases where talents are being victimized), and forming a system where both can work with the police and other companies.

From October to November, both have worked together to negotiate with operators of so-called "summary sites" which they have determined that have posted damaging information against virtual talents.

• A settlement is being prepared with such operators to ensure that the rights of affiliated talents and virtual livers cannot be infringed, and that any acts that to assist with defamation and similar actions will no longer occur.
• Each company continue to strengthen these procedures and engage in various countermeasures.

Notable Moments

ANYCOLOR has set up a Special Task Force to Combat Threatening Behavior and Defamation in November last year, laying down the framework on how to report abusive behavior against Nijisanji talents.

• Following this, ANYCOLOR has handled around 90 cases from September 2020 to August 2021 involving stalking, copyright infringement, threats and breach against privacy.
• ANYCOLOR has asked blog owners and individuals on social media to delete infringing information. The task force also contacted individuals who are impersonating their talents as they post maliciously on social media to stop.
• The company in another statement this year has also said that if they confirm that the acts against slander or defamation against their talents are criminal or illegal in nature, they may file a lawsuit and ask to identify the offender, in consultation with their lawyers.
• The task force filed a report for the period of September 2021 to September 2022, the company confirmed that they have identified offenders through court orders and are in the process of settling such cases with these perpetrators.
• Guidelines for secondary creation have been released as early as June 2019 under its previous name Ichikara Inc.

Hololive on the other hand has released a Derivative Work License Agreement (Fan Work Guidelines) in July 2020, which was updated June this year. The company has laid out prohibited actions which should not be done.

• Hololive Indonesia has warned in March that they will take serious actions towards misinformation that can cause threat to the safety of their talents, even going as far as taking legal action.