Thread by @tkatsumi06j

Japan’s toy giant @takaratomytoys issued an apology tweet on Sunday for ‘inappropriate expression’ in its Oct 21 tweet after going viral with a series of tweets which appeared to encourage #grooming of 5th grader girl character #Liccachan displaying (fake) “personal information”.

https://twitter.com/takaratomytoys/status/1319794128616521728

In it’s tweet @Takaratomytoys used a hashtag that reads “
#DisclosingPersonalnformation” to signify the information posted was a personal information of an “certain 5th grader girl”. However ‘playful’ it may have been, it wasn’t to many consumers who are mostly parents.

This wasn’t @takaratomytoys first attempt to do so. And the fake (but actually reaches to a service desk with parental guidance required) phone number is actually posted on its official website as well. This was no ‘play’ anymore.
licca.takaratomy.co.jp/profile/index.…

Of course fansimmediately recognized it’s just a PR attempt to lure parents into actually using the service with their children. However, this attempt also violates Twitter’s policy which prohibits discussions that “promote or glorify child sexual exploitation IN ANY WAY.”

Although @takaratomytoys issued an apology tweet for the ‘incovenience’ caused by their ‘expression’, as global company they owe the global consumers a formal explanation of this deplorable conduct and outline their mitigation policy to ensure this will never be repeated again.

According to @HuffPostJapan Takara Tomy conceded that their ‘double-check’ was not in place for the tweet in question. @takaratomytoys spokesman told that they will “review the Twitter policy and enforce the double-check policy.”

That’s not the issue.

huffingtonpost.jp/entry/story_jp…

Also according to the company spokesman, the account handler ‘took advantage’ of trending hashtag which was about ‘unauthorized divulging of personal information.’The account used the hashtag to be playful and ended up with unintended and devastating consequence. Typical.

However, in this March 2020 article the @takaratomytoys handler stated the “internal approval process has been lifted” because he served as handler for 6 months without causing any mishaps. So the ‘double-check‘ policy hasn’t been in place for some time.
webtan.impress.co.jp/e/2020/03/12/3…

This ‘web forum’ meeting of corporate account handlers took place in Fall 2019, following the general shareholders meeting in June where #PresidentKojima ensured shareholders that double-check “was and will continue to be in place.”
taaboustoybox.blog76.fc2.com/blog-entry-110…

So either the President made a false statement in front of his shareholders or he and his subordinates didn’t know any better about daily PR operations on their vast social media universe. But the ‘double-check’ was in fact put off for some time since around 4 years ago to date.

So the issue is manifold: 1) @takaratomytoys handler is almost free from any internal scrutiny; 2) the company’s mgmt didn’t know this; 3) their PR policies on SNS & product website is sexually exploitative with built-in CSE tendencies; and 4) CSR and SNS polices are not upheld.

@threadreaderapp please unroll this personal assessment.