Protesters tread on printouts of abusive tweets in front on Twitter headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, on September 8. Screencap from IWJ official YouTube channel. On Friday, September 8, about one hundred demonstrators gathered outside Twitter Japan's Tokyo headquarters to demand that the company do more to rein in harassment and hate speech on its network. Tokyo No Hate, a volunteer collective of activists, led the demonstration, highlighting Twitter's seeming reluctance to tackle the problem. The group had reported a series of discriminatory and hateful tweets to the company on September 3 and asked Twitter to remove the tweets by September 7. They pledged to demonstrate the next day in front of Twitter's Japan headquarters if the company failed to do so. 京橋(東京都中央区)。ツイッター社が入るビル前の歩道が「ヘイトスピーチ」で埋められた。 pic.twitter.com/uw36VBBaIo — 安田浩一 (@yasudakoichi) September 8, 2017 Kyobashi (Chuo-ku, Tokyo). “Hate speech” covers the sidewalk in front of Twitter Japan's head office. Borrowing tactics from a recent protest in Berlin and organized using the hashtag #0908Twitter社前 (“Meet in front of Twitter on 09/08), protesters gathered in front of Twitter's Tokyo office on September 8 and covered the sidewalk with print-outs of tweets communicating sexist, racist and violent messages. Ban hate tweets.@Twitter@TwitterJP #0908Twitter社前 pic.twitter.com/43LrxxIFE0 — 木村夏樹 Natsuki Kimura (@_natsukik) September 8, 2017 Sign: “Stop ignoring discriminatory tweets. Every day frightening. Every day unbearable. Every day agonizing. Help us, please.” Activists displayed hundreds of abusive tweets, some of which were photographed and shared on Twitter itself. Ban hate tweets.@Twitter@TwitterJP #0908Twitter社前 pic.twitter.com/t7CH1XK0rL — 木村夏樹 Natsuki Kimura (@_natsukik) September 8, 2017 Tweet: ‘Chon’ (a slur used against Koreans) are savages, aren't they? ヘイトスピーチは民族差別だけじゃないよ。 #0908Twitter社前 pic.twitter.com/sb1YTsX2lx — かぱぱん (@kapapanpan) September 8, 2017 Hate speech is not limited to just racial discrimination. Middle tweet: Women are an inferior species, and therefore must be extinguished. ミソジニストも対象っぽい pic.twitter.com/MHIAoZV4o1 — ガラスの雨 (@glass_river2222) September 8, 2017 With sex crimes, the victims are the most blame, especially women. Ultimately, participants were encouraged to tread on the printed tweets, and at the end of the demonstration the tweets were ceremonially deposited in a recycling bin. More offensive tweets identified by the demonstrators have been translated into English by activist Takahiro Katsumi in this Twitter Moment. With 40 million active users — accounting for about 30% of the national population — Twitter is one of Japan's most popular and commonly social networks. While Twitter does take some measures to keep threatening and hateful speech off its network (including the recent suspension of a user who threatened to kill a mosquito), there are complaints that other kinds of threats and harassment on Twitter are ignored. Toshiki Kino, an internet activist and former chairperson of Tokyo No Hate, told Global Voices that Twitter has been “completely inactive” in regulating hate speech against ethnic minorities in Japan: Hate speech against ethnic minorities people in Japan—mainly against Korean and Chinese people, but also against the Ainu [indigenous residents of Japan] on the Internet has been a very serious problem in recent years, but Twitter Japan has been completely inactive in terms of regulating such remarks. There is much hate speech on Twitter to choose from, but you'll see lots of serious examples if you search for “朝鮮人” [‘chosenjin’, a derogatory epithet for Korean people.] Although Twitter does not explicitly prohibit hate speech, their official rules forbid users from attacking or threatening a person on the basis of their identity traits. This rule reads as follows: You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease. We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories. While Twitter asks users to abide by this and other rules, it has no hard and fast mechanism for enforcing them. If you want a hateful or threatening tweet removed, you may file a report with the company. Then, it is up to Twitter's moderators to determine whether or not the tweet actually violates company rules. This method can be helpful if you see just a few hateful tweets each day, but such tweets often come by the hundreds and can swiftly become unmanageable for any user.