Photo/Illutration A now-removed job request posted to the CrowdWorks site seeks production of anti-China videos. (Jin Hirakawa)

CrowdWorks Inc., a major online staffing agency, has removed job requests for video productions, including fake content, that openly criticize or display hatred toward China.

Company officials said their guidelines prohibit work listings that could lead to discrimination or defamation toward people living in a particular region or misconstrue facts or manipulate impressions about a particular culture or nation.

CrowdWorks provides an online service that allows companies or individuals to subcontract work to registered members.

The company did not divulge how many job requests were removed from its site or how many different orderers were involved.

CrowdWorks did confirm it had removed requests from one orderer and The Asahi Shimbun looked into the requests of that orderer between November 2024 and this November and found at least 14 job requests for videos that were critical of China or considered “kenchu,” (China hatred).

Those requests could no longer be viewed on the CrowdWorks site by the evening of Dec. 3.

Asahi found at least seven that were posted before Dec. 3 or for which records existed on the internet.

The job postings, all seeking content that criticized China and praised Japan, offered to pay would-be contractors to write scripts for YouTube videos or to edit productions using artificial intelligence.

The requests provided examples of what was wanted, including depictions of trouble-making acts by Chinese or incidents highlighting a “lack of morals” in China.
Two of the requests called for fictitious episodes that painted Chinese in a bad light.

The postings promised between 1,500 yen ($9.70) and 5,000 yen for a single script and between 2,000 yen and 7,000 yen for editing work.

Among the conditions listed for the potential contractors were a love for Japanese and a hatred of Chinese.

Of the 14 confirmed requests, 31 individuals agreed to do the subcontracting work.

The job requests also had a link to a YouTube video that could be used as reference material for the type of work expected. The relationship between the orderer and the reference material was unclear.

One of the videos uses machine-generated narration to present what it describes as “the personal experience of an American couple,” asserting that cities and trains in China are dirty, in contrast to those in Japan, which are portrayed as clean.

Users of CrowdWorks’ site pointed out that certain job requests could violate its guidelines.

After an investigation, the company determined that some job requests likely violated the rules and removed them from the evening of Dec. 3.

Company officials said a two-stage process is used to determine if a request violates guidelines.

Before a request is posted, it goes through an AI system and is then visually confirmed by a staff member.

However, the AI system could not directly link some of the shady requests to banned acts. Staff members do not view job requests that are not flagged by the AI system.

Some of the job requests in question remained posted for a long time.

CrowdWorks officials said they would review the monitoring framework.

Asahi requested an interview with the orderer through the CrowdWorks site, but no response had been given by Dec. 5.

Shinichi Yamaguchi, an associate professor of social information studies at the International University of Japan, said social media users should be aware of the increase in content attempting to manipulate public opinion or generate personal profits.

“A fundamental task for users is to think about the uploader’s intention by being wary of content edited to draw an emotional reaction as well as fiction that seems based on actual events,” Yamaguchi said.

He added that online staffing agencies should strengthen monitoring of job requests and suspend accounts of those who violate guidelines.

In March, CrowdWorks banned job requests for political videos, following concerns that such productions influenced the outcomes of last year’s Hyogo and Tokyo gubernatorial elections.

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