Remove all Manwha and ban uploads of them

[panzerkampfwagyu]

As the Korean Blackmailing industry(With that I mean Kakao, etc. The manwha publishers) is pretty much behind most of the DMCA takedowns and Manwha being the prime target for the worse scanlation groups, I think it might just be the best Idea to put the entire Genre into the dustbin and just not bother with the trouble any more.

Maybe allow self-published or ones with a clear permission, but otherwise, just remove Korean Manwha entirely from the site and not allow any uploads

 

[mylovenovels]

Manhwa longstrips make my wrist hurt from all the needless scrolling so I'm all for it!

But on a more serious note, what is the actual evidence of this Korean blackmailing industry affecting MangaDex?

Honestly, if the format itself hurts your wrist, it sounds like you should be finding something that’s actually comfortable for you to read instead of arguing against something a lot of people clearly enjoy??

And to answer your actual question there’s no credible evidence ( maybe no idea) that some sort of “Korean blackmailing industry” is behind issues on MangaDex. That idea has been floated around in random threads and speculation, but it hasn’t been backed up by reliable sources, official statements, or investigations. People’s access issues tend to come from things like server problems, legal takedown requests, or site admin decisions which are very different from this conspiracy style claim.

So until someone points to actual proof (like documented legal action or statements from the parties involved), it’s safer to treat that theory as just speculation.

 

[panzerkampfwagyu]

And to answer your actual question there’s no credible evidence ( maybe no idea) that some sort of “Korean blackmailing industry” is behind issues on MangaDex. That idea has been floated around in random threads and speculation, but it hasn’t been backed up by reliable sources, official statements, or investigations. People’s access issues tend to come from things like server problems, legal takedown requests, or site admin decisions which are very different from this conspiracy style claim.

So until someone points to actual proof (like documented legal action or statements from the parties involved), it’s safer to treat that theory as just speculation.

Okay, given that my diss was misunderstood more than I expected, I added a clarification.

 

[mylovenovels]

As the Korean Blackmailing industry(With that I mean Kakao, etc. The manwha publishers) is pretty much behind most of the DMCA takedowns and Manwha being the prime target for the worse scanlation groups, I think it might just be the best Idea to put the entire Genre into the dustbin and just not bother with the trouble any more.

Maybe allow self-published or ones with a clear permission, but otherwise, just remove Korean Manwha entirely from the site and not allow any uploads

I think there’s still a leap being made here. Even if we clarify that you’re talking about companies like Kakao and DMCA enforcement, that doesn’t automatically justify removing all Korean manhwa from the site.

DMCA takedowns are a legal and moderation issue, not something inherent to the genre itself. Plenty of manga publishers are just as aggressive with copyright enforcement, but we don’t argue that Japanese manga as a whole should be wiped from the platform because of it.

Manhwa being a common target for bad scanlation groups is also an uploader problem, not a format or origin problem. That’s better addressed through stricter rules, faster takedowns, or limiting uploads to permission granted and indie works not a blanket ban.

If someone doesn’t want to deal with manhwa or the legal friction around it, the easiest option is simply not to read it. Removing an entire category because it’s popular and legally messy ends up hurting legitimate creators and readers more than it solves the underlying issues.

Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku

 

[77BLc9JwJGpLVARkamJx]

If someone doesn’t want to deal with manhwa or the legal friction around it, the easiest option is simply not to read it. Removing an entire category because it’s popular and legally messy ends up hurting legitimate creators and readers more than it solves the underlying issue

 

[panzerkampfwagyu]

I think there’s still a leap being made here. Even if we clarify that you’re talking about companies like Kakao and DMCA enforcement, that doesn’t automatically justify removing all Korean manhwa from the site.

DMCA takedowns are a legal and moderation issue, not something inherent to the genre itself. Plenty of manga publishers are just as aggressive with copyright enforcement, but we don’t argue that Japanese manga as a whole should be wiped from the platform because of it.

As it was pointed out, they are mostly aggressive about sharing of raws, which are already banned on this site.

If someone doesn’t want to deal with manhwa or the legal friction around it, the easiest option is simply not to read it. Removing an entire category because it’s popular and legally messy ends up hurting legitimate creators and readers more than it solves the underlying issues.

The site is still going to be pursued even if I, you or another user doesn't read the stuff here. Their shyster lawyers do not care about that. They will do large takedowns and then also have other works as collateral, as the DMCA last year has shown.
Again, Mangadex is in the position where they can't just hop domains and drop one of their hydra heads, as they want to be somewhat legitimate. Let sites that can do that hold them instead.
I also already noted that there could be exceptions made for those that are permitted uploads by the rightsholders, but anything else just invites trouble from a belligerent group of pricks.

 

[Data_Gold]

Why? ૮o.o ა Publishers are already well aware of MangaDex and sites like it, they pay people whos entire job is to find such sites, and know more of 'em than you do. ૮.ᆺ. ა
when they send a DMCA, it's becuse they think they can make more money if the site doesn't have such content. __〆૮o.o ა
removing an entire medium preemptively isn't going to do anything but hurt MangaDex and its community ૮.ω. ა

 

[Data_Gold]

Manwha being the prime target for the worse scanlation groups

If you have the audacity to say this seriously, I don't think you should make any such sweeping suggestions. ૮-ᆺ- ა Scam scanlation groups go after manwha becuse solo leveling made manwha huge and profitable in the west. ૮.ᆺ. ა
Before their hyper focus on manwha, it was isekai and isekai adjacent series, and before that I believe it was big name shounen and the like. ૮o.o ა
If you ban manwha those scanlation groups are just going to go back to manga, and try sniping every series they can, like they already do for manwha ૮-ᆺ- ა

 

[BakedBanana]

You want to ban manhwa to save MangaDex
I want to ban manhwa because I hate it.

We are not the same.

 

[CharaDotArchivist]

mangadex is supposed to be the (legal) place for HIGH-QUALITY translations of manga and manga-adjacent media, no?
most manwha i've read defy the quality portion, so i'm pretty on board with this

 

[GipoScribantino]

Man I'm so tempted to start another flame... but maybe it won't be effective so it doesn't matter... but if it flames up then it would undermine this thread to which I somewhat agree with... decisions, decisions.
Ah whatever, let's do it:
Before MangaDex adopted UUIDs to identify works, upload number 1 was a korean action junk.

 

[solstice258]

Man I'm so tempted to start another flame... but maybe it won't be effective so it doesn't matter... but if it flames up then it would undermine this thread to which I somewhat agree with... decisions, decisions.
Ah whatever, let's do it:
Before MangaDex adopted UUIDs to identify works, upload number 1 was a korean action junk.

Oh god... Oh no... The first three titles were all manhwa......

 

[PokutoHokuto]

Just more stuff on the topic

Major manga scanlation site MangaDex has been hit with a large-scale series of DMCA takedown notices from companies enforcing their copyrights, resulting in an estimated 700+ series removed in select languages.

https://animecorner.me/mangadex-manga-deleted-dmca-takedown-action/

These companies have also filed DMCA takedowns with Google to reduce visibility. This is available publicly and, in just the last two days, includes Kakao, Naver, Lezhin, Suiseisha, Kodansha, Houbunsha, WEBTOON, One Peace Books, Toomics, NTT Solmare, Square Enix, Ridi Corp.’s Manta, Alphapolis, Shinchosha, Toyou’s Dream, Shogakukan, WWWave Corporation, Mag Garden, and Bunkasha.

https://lumendatabase.org/notices/s...sc&term-exact-search=true&term="mangadex.org"
(archived)
That lumen database site shows all the dmca, it's a lot better than the "transparency" page of dex which shows only 11 results

"‘The Level of Punishment for Operators of Illegal Websites Is Low’: Learn How Kakao Entertainment Cracks Down on Webtoon Piracy"

https://animecorner.me/how-kakao-entertainment-cracks-down-on-webtoon-piracy/

 

[PokutoHokuto]

Just opened one of the many old dmca reports

https://lumendatabase.org/notices/52046281
Reported: May 16, 2025
This one is funny,
a german company (comeso), sending the dmca
on behalf of a korean site (naver)
to google (to have google delist the sites from the search results, probably)
with the dmca targeting 101 sites at the same time

Notice Type: DMCA

Copyright claim 1
Kind of Work: Unspecified
Description Original Work: Secretary’s Escape

Original URLs:

1. comic.naver.com - 1 URL

Allegedly Infringing URLs:

1. mto.to - 24 URLs
2. battwo.com - 21 URLs
3. bato.to - 20 URLs
4. www.mangago.me - 20 URLs
5. xbato.com - 19 URLs
6. mangamirror.com - 19 URLs
7. fto.to - 19 URLs
8. mangabuddy.com - 19 URLs
9. www.novelcool.com - 19 URLs
10. www.taadd.com - 19 URLs
11. lekmanga.net - 18 URLs

Mangadex wasn't even in the top 10 by url rank

20. mangadex.org - 10 URLs

They are so indirect, the dmca claimants hide behind other companies, and they also target any site even only showing public links to their real targets (like google, which isn't a manga site, but the search results lead to the manga sites)

 

[jeezits]

From the takedowns I've seen, it looks like it happens mostly with JP titles that have official translations. If a title doesn't have an official TL, then naturally the publisher isn't losing any sales due to scanlation - the people reading unofficial TLs weren't going to buy the raws anyway.

The DMCA megastrike had piles of series that are decades old and never received any kind of commercial translation ever. The publishers just want scanslation to end period. I suspect that there's going to be a slow ramp up of digital only MTL slop over the next few years.

 

[PokutoHokuto]

This is the latest reported dmca where mangadex is involved

Reported: Today, February 05, 2026
https://lumendatabase.org/notices/78213628
From korea, all about manhwas, if it's a coincidence, it's a very strong coincidence

Spoiler: image

1 DMCA, 48 claims, dmca sent to google (to make the sites unreachable?), mangadex is involved in 2 of the 48 claims

Spoiler: A summary of all the reported DMCA from 2025

That lumen site seems to report only dmca aimed at google, I was expecting to see also DMCA targeted directly at mangadex and other manga sites. There was something in the articles about "google DMCA forms", so maybe google also resends the received dmca to the listed manga sites?
Anyway, it's mostly all koreans for real who are behind all the DMCA hitting manga sites.

 

[Mangamoz]

Manhwa longstrips make my wrist hurt from all the needless scrolling so I'm all for it!

But on a more serious note, what is the actual evidence of this Korean blackmailing industry affecting MangaDex?

I remember one of them literally gloated about taking down fansub manga sites on their official company twitter account.

I don't remember the name now though.