Online job brokers ban requests to create political videos
Two major online staffing agencies have banned requests recruiting workers to create political videos due to concerns such acts might violate the Public Offices Election Law.
That law bans payment of money to anyone involved in election activities and the online requests would pay workers to create the short videos and could be considered a vote-buying act.
Such videos became the focus of attention in last year's Hyogo and Tokyo gubernatorial elections because of concerns that they influenced the outcomes.
The two Tokyo-based companies are CrowdWorks Inc. and coconala inc.
Short political videos are created by editing and combining clips of campaign speeches and news conference appearances, inserting titles and other information for dispersal through social media and YouTube.
Advertising revenue can be earned depending on the number of views on YouTube so some people have posted such videos to make money.
CrowdWorks revised its guidelines as of March 14.
The old guidelines banned any activity that may violate laws or ordinances. Until now, election activities were covered by that guideline, but the new version also includes political activities.
A company official said the new activity was included because of difficulty in differentiating between election and political activities. The company has already deleted a number of requests seeking people willing to create short political videos.
Coconala had banned acts that provided information, including political ideology. But a clearer definition will be included because company officials have come across requests for job seekers that might violate the Public Offices Election Law.
A company official said a specialized team would be set up to delete or issue warnings about job requests that are egregious attempts to diminish or improve the political image of specific office holders, candidates or political parties.
Another major online job brokering company, Lancers Inc., bans requests for workers to handle any job related to elections, but declined to confirm if any new guidelines would be added.
Masahito Tadano, a constitutional law professor at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, said the moves by the two companies might have an effect in the coming months with the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election set for June and the Upper House election scheduled for July.
(This article was written by Ryo Sanada and Ryota Goto.)
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