Mangadex to purge titles for legal reasons

[Cobaltzero]

as technology gets better, they'll be no more piracy as crackdowns will be easy. Mangadex is moving in the direction of legal like other sites have before they get hit for good. Sad but true.

piracy will never die. getting to the sites will get harder though.

 

[Pauan]

The site will survive as long as namicomi, the company behind MD, remains operational and continues to support it. It will survive, but at the cost of mutilating the entire site because they have to appease the ad networks, Visa, and Mastercard.

Which means they will die. The manga on MangaDex are not created by MangaDex, not scanlated by MangaDex, and not uploaded by MangaDex.

MangaDex provides the platform, but all of the actual content comes from the users scanlating and uploading it. Without the users, MangaDex has zero content. Nobody will visit a manga website that has zero content.

 

[BestBoy]

we're opening the door

miss me with the slippery slope fallacy

 

[Quroh_JG]

miss me with the slippery slope fallacy

 

[meccaflare]

So just to clarify... should we leave it entirely up to staff review? If future moderation decisions are made, will uploaders be penalized retroactively? Or will there be some kind of cutoff date where prior uploads won’t result in strikes?

I’m asking because predictability matters. If policies are evolving, it would help to know whether enforcement is forward-looking or if older content is at risk.

On a separate note, I think section 3.1.1 could be worded more transparently. If the driving factor here is compliance with payment processor requirements, it may be better to state that directly rather than framing it purely as a legality issue.

After all, legality varies widely by region... there are countries where LGBT content is illegal, yet that’s clearly not the standard being applied here. I'm betting this constraint is specifically tied to Visa/Mastercard policies, clarity about that would avoid confusion and speculation.

It is what it is... platforms have to operate within their financial constraints. I just think being upfront about the reasoning would go a long way.

Just to expand on what I said... I genuinely can’t tell whether people are catastrophizing this or if there’s actually a broader shift happening. That’s why I’m asking for clarity.

If this extends beyond explicit NSFW content and starts applying to mature-themed works that feature younger-looking characters in suggestive contexts, then that’s a much bigger deal. I’ll be honest: I don’t even know what Papa Milk was, so I’m missing some context here.

If, however, this is strictly limited to explicit NSFW material, then it’s not quite as apocalyptic as some are making it out to be. I say that as someone who regularly uploads NSFW doujinshi. On MangaDex, those might get 300–700 bookmarks, while on other platforms the same release can pull 30k–70k. I like having the option to upload here and I use it, but this alone wouldn’t be the end of MD. It just depends on how far this goes.


On rule 3.1.1 specifically:

“3.1.1 Illegal Content, in particular, child pornography, child abuse and drug abuse.”

The inclusion of “drug abuse” feels out of place and overly broad. Depictions of drug use are common across all forms of media... film, television, literature... and are often used to portray reality or explore serious themes. There isn’t a blanket law against fictional depictions of drug use. As written, the rule could technically apply to a wide range of mainstream works, including manga currently on the site. It should just be removed.

More broadly, the wording of 3.1.1 feels overly literal and ambiguous at the same time. It doesn’t clearly distinguish between real-world illegality and fictional depictions. Adding qualifiers like “non-fictional” or “real-world” where appropriate... or explicitly clarifying how fictional portrayals are treated... would remove a lot of confusion.

At the end of the day, I’m asking for clearer boundaries so uploaders aren’t left guessing where the line is.

 

[seekermoc]

Could give less of a shit, it deserves to stay here.

Basically this. There's all kinds of horrible stuff on this site. Murder, rape, torture, incest, gore, horror, etc. Some stuff is so extreme even I find it hard to defend, like the example in question.

But it's all fiction. All stories. None of it is real. All of it protected by free speech (at least in the US). Whether any individual finds it repulsive or not doesn't matter. Take out loli and what's next? Yaoi, yuri, ecchi? What if they look young, but the story says they're adults? What if they look like adults, but the story says they're young? Who's making the judgement of whether something is acceptable or not, and based on what standards?

 

[PilotNOT]

miss me with the slippery slope fallacy

What fallacy? we've already seen it with anime with how they treat nudity and loli nowadays

 

[Agt2018]

miss me with the slippery slope fallacy

You might have an undying trust to MD mods but looks like most of us don't.
It is legitimate concern by users here. Some mangas might get taken down without notice.

 

[Kanami-chan]

What fallacy? we've already seen it with anime with how they treat nudity and loli nowadays

yes. most modern anime are like this.
male gaze = absolutely haram
female gaze = OH HELLO DEAR!

 

[furryadminhypocrite]

miss me with the slippery slope fallacy

It's real, clockwork orange did turn someone into a murderer.

 

[karimsss]

Jumping back here because my previous post had a sentence that was poorly worded and came off as too much of a personal attack or moral grandstanding. I also didn't provide enough context on the content being removed, so that's on me.

I've been reading some of the replies, and thank you for voicing your opinions and concerns, whether in this thread or elsewhere. Users want clarification on the removals, so please find it below.

We were made aware of content that goes against our content policy, specifically clause 3.1.1 regarding underage characters in pornographic settings. The content that was removed, and some content still being reviewed, includes entries labelled Mature, with characters that are engaging in sexual intercourse and either:

• They are clearly very young in appearance, and the content does not confirm that they are adults.
• The content itself confirms that they are under the age of 18.

Nothing else is being examined at this time. We're currently exploring options to retain the title entry and other non-infringing metadata, but for now, we need to proceed with the removal.

still moralfagging PIRATE site, how retarded are you? how power hungry are you mr. joined 2024?

 

[Xnot]

You keep talking about rules that were always in place, yet Xnot mentioned a recent policy change. Why are we getting conflicting info? And why is there still no official statement?

With all this backlash you gotta see that there are only two options:
1. Embrace that MD is a piracy site and already deals with illegal content by default, so walk back those decisions, or
2. Die on that hill and all of MD with it. It's been a great time, but I guess we'll have to look for alternatives.

3.1.1 section in the content policy : "Illegal Content, in particular, child pornography, child abuse and drug abuse."

How does this affect titles such as Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete, Made in Abyss, Kitanai Kimi ga Ichiban Kawaii, etc. While they are not "Mature" titles you cannot deny they violate content policy as defined.

Then there is the question what happens to everything else that contains "Illegal Content"? Berserk contains everything and more, so does it get removed as well?

Finally, why now? You didn't just find out about this content suddenly. Literally the first chapter ever uploaded to MD was removed because it goes against the content policy. So what changed?


If the issue is the covers then just have the covers replaced with some sort of placeholder image.

The relevant section has been in the content policy for a while. However, as a platform with user-provided content, there are things we enforce reactively based on legal complaints received. This is pretty standard operation for platforms with high volume of user-provided content. Ether stated what was affected in the current round, and I will refrain from speculating on things we have not received complaints on.

I'd also like to clear up, to the many people who seem unaware, that MD operates within legal compliance, as should've been made painfully aware by this and previous content removals. Like it or not, this is the only option for the continued existence of the site.

 

[popo53414]

you guys couldn't wait.....just nearly in time for my 30th birthday

 

[PilotNOT]

I don't get MangaDex and NamiComi, you can't have both cakes and eat them, why does a piracy site wants to suddenly act all moral and just now? I blame NamiComi, was thinking I want to post my works there in the future but now I won't, eat shit and die.

 

[NikoNikoNii]

So for those of us who are lurkers and don't spend too much time interacting with the community, where do we go from here? It is true that spaces like this are likely to become rarer and rarer. Will anything fill the gap for MD like it did for Batoto, or is this truly the last stop for casual piracy that most of us use this site for? Side note: thanks to all the scanlators who have worked on all these series over the years. Awesome dedication.

 

[seekermoc]

The relevant section has been in the content policy for a while. However, as a platform with user-provided content, there are things we enforce reactively based on legal complaints received. This is pretty standard operation for platforms with high volume of user-provided content. Ether stated what was affected in the current round, and I will refrain from speculating on things we have not received complaints on.

I'd also like to clear up, to the many people who seem unaware, that MD operates within legal compliance, as should've been made painfully aware by this and previous content removals. Like it or not, this is the only option for the continued existence of the site.

Again, what was illegal about the series removed?

 

[PilotNOT]

So for those of us who are lurkers and don't spend too much time interacting with the community, where do we go from here? It is true that spaces like this are likely to become rarer and rarer. Will anything fill the gap for MD like it did for Batoto, or is this truly the last stop for casual piracy that most of us use this site for? Side note: thanks to all the scanlators who have worked on all these series over the years. Awesome dedication.

It's kind of hard to find manga sites of the scale of this and ComicK/Bato.io, I wonder if someone can recreate this site?

 

[Pauan]

miss me with the slippery slope fallacy

It's only a fallacy when there is zero evidence.

It's not a fallacy when it's happening before our very eyes.

https://fee.org/articles/is-the-slippery-slope-fallacy-really-a-fallacy/

 

[Darroth]

Massive purge of content by DMCA
New administrator does massive purge of content willingly
Site is empty

What did Mangadex mean by this?

 

[PilotNOT]

The relevant section has been in the content policy for a while. However, as a platform with user-provided content, there are things we enforce reactively based on legal complaints received. This is pretty standard operation for platforms with high volume of user-provided content. Ether stated what was affected in the current round, and I will refrain from speculating on things we have not received complaints on.

I'd also like to clear up, to the many people who seem unaware, that MD operates within legal compliance, as should've been made painfully aware by this and previous content removals. Like it or not, this is the only option for the continued existence of the site.

You're a piracy site, you're already breaking the law, what kind of retarded legal framework are you even working with here?