Fantia announces censorship of adult content

The content creator platform Fantia has announced sweeping changes that will greatly impact its use by adult content creators by forcing them to censor their uploads.

Fantia is popular with models as well as adult illustrators and doujinshi creators, but that may be set to change with the announcement on May 19 that all content on Fantia needs blurring, pixellation (mosaic), or covering by a solid color to full hide images of genitalia and penetration. This also applies to past uploads, so creators will need to fix past content or remove it.

It relates to Article 175 of the Japanese Penal Code, which prohibits the distribution, sale, public display, or electronic transmission of obscene material. The conventional interpretation of this is that actual genitalia counts as obscene, which is why porn is pixellated and why even non-sexual nudity involving genitalia is generally censored in Japan as a precaution.

Failure to comply with the rule, which comes into effect from May 25, could see you suspended or banned from the platform and the authorities notified about your potentially illegal content. Creators are scrambling to hide their archives and adjust their past uploads. It is likely that the rule applies to both photographic images and 2D illustrations.

It has, understandably, sparked outrage among both fans/users and the creator and illustrator community, who see the rule revision not only as censorship of a small corner of the internet in which they felt free, but also unreasonable in terms of the workload to fix past uploads by the deadline.

This change and fallout will also have an impact on the bank balances of many, because Fantia is a precious way in Japan for freelance models and illustrators to make money through making adult content. The popularity of the platform with models has drawn comparison with overseas sites like OnlyFans, but the heavy presence of illustrators and doujinshi creators also gives the platform a more local character.

It is not fully clear what has prompted this move by Fantia to comply with Article 175 (the announcement just mentions tightening and revising the rules based on “instruction from relevant organizations”), but possibly it was pressure from a payment provider or bank, and even the police or government. But what is clear is that one of the bastions of adult content in Japan is about to disappear.