Mangadex to purge titles for legal reasons

[RogueKitsune]

Recently MD has started purging titles from the site for "legal reasons". This does not affect just the chapters uploaded but also the title page itself.

Spoiler: Initial Response

Title removal announcement: https://forums.mangadex.org/threads/recent-removal-of-content.2558637/

This change was first discovered by a user who reached out to a group about reading some of their chapters on MD.
https://forums.mangadex.org/threads/inquiry-regarding-a-recently-missing-manga-series-page.2552352/

Take this information how you want but it's extremely disappointing that this is happening and even more so that it's trying to be done in the dark.

tldr

• User wants to read a series and notices its not on MD contacts group about
• Group had uploaded chapters to series on MD notice that series is missing and inquire about it
• After several hours MD moderator confirms series was removed intentionally but didn't know why
• Couple hours after "legal reasons" as given as the reason for removal
• Other users notice other series are also disappearing
• Less than an hour later I made this thread
• Speculation as to what exactly "legal reasons" means and potential scope of impact are discussed
• Initial (sub-optimal) response from Admin
• Community backlash
• A better response from Admin and some other staff
• More questions and concerns from community etc.
• ???
• ???
• STILL WAITING FOR PROPER ANNOUNCEMENT
• Almost one week later we finally got an announcement
• Confirmed that a list of removed titles WILL NOT be provided.

PS: Keep all discussion about this in this thread and out of the support forum.

Edit: Spoilered the initial response from EtherealNeko and tried to add a tldr
Edit 2: added link to announcement
Edit 3: updated with new information regarding removed titles.

 

[OisE]

They could have done it differently, like removing the covers or blurring them.

To destroy the "metadata" of the titles is totally overkill imo.

I am ot on discord, so I am not in the known, but are the decision-makers, the same people from before?
It feels like they are trying to "betray us" so they don't communicate on their issues and their next decisions. I can't seem to trust them anymore... And I don't find it very couragous to hide behind the mods who always try to calm the users only after the issues were discovered by the users on this forum.

EDIT: Also, I am not very concerned by this kind of titles but if MD's staff continues like this MD will become worse.

 

[yogurtman250]

Recently MD has started purging titles from the site for "legal reasons". This does not affect just the chapters uploaded but also the title page itself.

This change was first discovered by a user who reached out to a group about reading some of their chapters on MD.
https://forums.mangadex.org/threads/inquiry-regarding-a-recently-missing-manga-series-page.2552352/

Take this information how you want but it's extremely disappointing that this is happening and even more so that it's trying to be done in the dark.

PS: Keep all discussion about this in this thread and out of the support forum.

MangaDex deletion by 2027 might actually be real

 

[BakedBanana]

A screenshot of what one of the staff said on the Support channel if some users don't want to check the MangaDex Discord.

 

[RogueKitsune]

I am ot on discord, so I am not in the known, but are the decision-makers, the same people from before?
It feels like they are trying to "betray us" so they don't communicate on their issues and their next decisions. I can't seem to trust them anymore... And I don't find it very couragous to hide behind the mods who always try to calm the users only after the issues were discovered by the users on this forum.

I am not staff so I do not have any insight on how these decisions are worked out and acted upon, but I do know that at least some of the moderators get blindsided by these actions. Any information I get usually comes from those with good intentions but hands tied by internal situations.

 

[Trobilobada]

 

[B4z73rd]

This probably has something to do with Texas passing that stupid anti-anime/manga law, and the state could bring you to court if the site is either in Texas or is accessible there, but it's hard to prove the threshold for any legal action against Mangadex.

 

[yogurtman250]

I am not staff so I do not have any insight on how these decisions are worked out and acted upon, but I do know that at least some of the moderators get blindsided by these actions. Any information I get usually comes from those with good intentions but hands tied by internal situations.

I'm curious about those internal situations. I have a slight feeling a lawsuit may be apart of this...

 

[OisE]

This probably has something to do with Texas passing that stupid anti-anime/manga law, and the state could bring you to court if the site is either in Texas or is accessible there, but it's hard to prove the threshold for any legal action against Mangadex.

Just block mature access for Texas.

 

[yogurtman250]

This probably has something to do with Texas passing that stupid anti-anime/manga law, and the state could bring you to court if the site is either in Texas or is accessible there, but it's hard to prove the threshold for any legal action against Mangadex.

What's the law about? I'm curious.

 

[BakedBanana]

Why does bad shit keep happening right when we get new features lmao. This is like the third time it has happened.

 

[yogurtman250]

What's the law about? I'm curious.

Oh fuck

 

[OisE]

Oh fuck

I know of a certain austrian guy who also censored some books because of their origins.
Great time to not live in the USA.

 

[yogurtman250]

I know of a certain austrian guy who also censored some books because of their origins.
Great time to not live in the USA.

The world is slowly and permantely becoming a worse and worse place everyday...

 

[B4z73rd]

Yeah, the Texas law I was talking about is this one. It all has to do with depiction of characters in anime and manga if they're sex scenes or something like that. It's pretty broad law that is absolutely dumb.

Oh fuck

 

[RogueKitsune]

Allow me to don my cap of speculation.
quickly wraps head with tin foil

TO CLARIFY THIS IS ALL JUST A GUESS (I.E. SPECULATION). This is just based on what I have observed as consumer of various good and services as well as one who works within the financial industry.

This has nothing to do with the recent law(s) passed in Texas. Its much simpler; Money.

We all know and love that payment processors have effectively unchecked control over what we are allowed to spend money in the digital age and use that power to force their prerogatives on merchants. How does this affect MD? Well you need a payment processor to process all those donations users are giving every month, and if Mr Big PP comes over and sees something he doesn't like. Well, it plays out kind of like you would think a mafia shake down would.

There is also the advertising side of things. Some may have noticed after a certain event that there was an seemingly an increase of one type of title that was being uploaded to MD (Porn. Its porn. lots of porn) . Well most businesses don't like their brand/product being put next to that kind of content which makes it harder to find people that will give you money to advertise on your site (well at least the non-shadey businesses).

 

[EtherealNeko]

Stop the misinformation. Titles being removed depict sexual activity between characters that are minors, either in appearance (handled on a case-by-case basis) or confirmed in the dialogue. It's about law and compliance with it. If you jerk it off to little kids, go and do it elsewhere; there are sites that specialise in that.

---

Staff note: Please refer to the following post for a somewhat less unsavoury follow up on this.
https://forums.mangadex.org/posts/29007231

 

[Z3RYX]

Stop the misinformation. Titles being removed depict sexual activity between characters that are minors, either in appearance (handled on a case-by-case basis) or confirmed in the dialogue. It's about law and compliance with it. If you jerk it off to little kids, go and do it elsewhere; there are sites that specialise in that.

Bullshit. Where is the transparency? Where is that rule? Why does your site even have a loli tag and tolerated it for years if that's your opinion?

 

[BakedBanana]

Stop the misinformation. Titles being removed depict sexual activity between characters that are minors, either in appearance (handled on a case-by-case basis) or confirmed in the dialogue. It's about law and compliance with it. If you jerk it off to little kids, go and do it elsewhere; there are sites that specialise in that.

..Isn't there staff who upload loli porn though? Why the sudden change in stance?
https://mangadex.org/user/29069e0a-5525-468c-a3d6-b138bf16afba/aliceshiro?tab=uploads

 

[EtherealNeko]

Any additions or uploads to the service that are not compliant will be removed as we become aware of them.

As for the comment by the blue guy, read the Content Policy. It's there, has been for a while now.