WARNING TO NEW VISITORS WHO CLICKED THIS LINK. This entry contains drawings that can affect sensibilities. If you are one of those who does have sensibilities, I extremely recommend you to close this tab and do something else.
My name is AsFoxger. I am the creator of various webcomics and one of them is A Yurist Closet.
A Yurist Closet is a webcomic that I started in 2015 as a parody of the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica with a tone of very dark comedy, including fictional events related to violence, sex and outrageous situations. Clearly the webcomic can give the impression that it’s not for everyone.
My webcomics are mainly hosted in Comicfury and at the time I’m writing this up to date A Yurist Closet has 152 comic strips. I post my webcomics in various social media sites, but the ones that are uncensored were found in ComicFury.
Since the 22nd of June of 2020 I’m struggling with a problem, I can’t access the website of Comicfury anymore under my credentials, and I also found out that my webcomics disappeared without any warning or message or email. Confused, I sent an email to Kyo, the administrator of ComicFury, informing what happened to me and asking for an explanation, thinking this must be some kind of mistake.
Still, other part of me thought that it wasn’t merely a coincidence that the 5 years of work accumulated on my projects in this site was blown away in an instant precisely that day after I released a certain comic strip the same day, the 22nd of June of 2020, but we’ll focus on that soon enough.
I’ll list the exchange of messages between me and Kyo. I’ll post screencaps and below these the corresponding text. I’m starting with my contact form sometime after noon the 22nd of June of 2020:
Hello. My name is AsFoxger. I am the creator of various webcomics hosted in ComicFury, such as Geek Roommates and A Yurist Closet.
5 minutes ago I tried to login just to find out that I can’t login, not only that but I don’t find my profile in ComicFury and my other webcomics as well.
May I ask what happened?
Thank you in advance.
Then Kyo responds the same day at 21:43:
You were banned for posting CP on your webcomic
This short response filled with an extreme accusation. Like any sane human being living in a civilized and peaceful society, I am against sexual harassment and violence against anyone, and that includes children. I didn’t accept that response and proceeded to ask the same day at 22:53:
CP seems to be a strong claim. Can you show any evidence about that?
I proceeded to ask this question because a grave accusation like that needs evidence. The next day, 23rd of June of 2020 at 2:38 Kyo responds:
it was the one about sweden. Like even as a joke drawing you can’t post kids having sex dude, think about it.
Drawings are not CP.
Kyo here is making a reference about one of my comic strips of A Yurist Closet, but it’s strange because the comic strip was made three years ago. To be more precise, it was released the 28th of September of 2017.
This is the comic strip Kyo referred:
In case you don’t see the comic, I’ll describe it:
It’s a three-panel comic about my webcomic A Yurist Closet. It’s the 53rd strip and it’s titled in red “Don’t do this”.
In the first panel there are two characters in a field, in the background there’s a notice “WELCOME TO SWEDEN”. The two characters are Kagami Hiiragi and Konata Izumi, from the anime Lucky Star. They are happy to arrive to Sweden as they walk.
Kagami says: “Finally we get a school trip to Sweden, I always wanted to learn their culture!”
Konata responds: “Yeah, I want to see Swedish videogames such as Goat Simulator!”
In the second and third panels there’s a narration panel that says “2 minutes later…”
The girls are naked and brutally raped by muslim men.
So, it’s something I didn’t get exactly but then I understood what was happening, but first let’s move to the email situation.
Here I send two separate emails, the second being more complete than the other. While writing the first email I accidentally hit the button to send instead of the button “Enter” in my phone. For the sake of transparency I’ll provide the two separate messages.
This is the first email from me, sent the same day at 5:15:
Why did you had to wait a long time until yesterday to ban me for that comic strip I made years ago if that was the problem?
Then I sent a second more precise and completed email 15 minutes later (5:30):
Well this begs two questions:
All characters I draw are 18 or older. Why did you classify these characters as minors? And if you think that’s the case, who am I harming or exploited exactly? Because as far as I know there is no crime without a victim.
If that was the problem, Why did you have to wait a long time until yesterday to ban me for that comic strip about Sweeden I made years ago? Why wait until now?
I think there is one rational question when it comes to obscenity in fiction: Were any people exploited? Because with drawings the answer is no. There is no obscenity because drawings do not require exploiting people to exist.
And in case you didn’t see the title of the site:
In case you don’t see the image, I’ll transcript it:
WARNING: CONTAINS ADULT CONTENT, NAVIGATE WITH RESPONSIBILITY.
ALL DRAWN CHARACTERS ARE 18 OR OLDER, EVEN IF SPECIFIED OTHERWISE.
THE AUTHOR DOES NOT CONDONE, PROMOTE, OR ENCOURAGE VIOLENCE AGAINST ANYONE.
This disclaimer was done because there are still people who can’t differentiate between fiction and reality, and because it’s 2020 #CurrentYear you can be banned for anything even if we have to include the implications of the approval of Cancel Culture in society, so I have to put disclaimers in my website so people don’t get the wrong idea.
Then Kyo replies at 5:57 of the same day:
because it was reported to me yesterday.
Another very short response. This makes things interesting.
Here Kyo referred the previous day, the 22nd of October of 2020, the day when I uploaded a certain strip to my webcomic A Yurist Closet just to find out hours later that everything related to me was banned. I can already confirm that there’s something going on and I know exactly what happened to cause this, but first let’s focus on the mails.
Interesting that he’s responding one of my questions instead of answering both of them. So in the same day at 6:14 I insisted on my ignored question:
You didn’t answer my other question, but I’ll post it again:
All characters I draw are 18 or older. Why did you classify these characters as minors? And if you think that’s the case, who am I harming or exploited exactly? Because as far as I know there is no crime without a victim.
Then Kyo responds on the same day at 6:42:
I’m not interested in arguing semantics with you
The situation is more clear at each message he is giving me. Through the course of artistic works like videogames, movies, books, etc… every time something gets censored and the people who are upset by the censorship and demand for an explanation they ignore them, ignore the questions or perform a #DealWithIt as a response.
This situation is no different.
I’m demanding an explanation with valid questions through this situation based on a false accusation and I receive a “I’m not interested in arguing semantics with you”. Well, it’s clear that now he doesn’t want to consider the possibility that he’s in favor of the false accusation and doesn’t want to define specific words and what involves in a crime, because doing so will require him to admit that he made a mistake and correct his actions afterwards.
As an author that does not condone violence, I wanted to confirm if he has a specific set of beliefs that lead to violence, I asked Kyo the same day at 7:02:
Okay, no semantics then. Allow me to ask:
If you equate that comic as CP, will you equate the other violent comic strips as real life murder/violence?
“What kind of question is that?” you may ask. Well, I let you know the response Kyo made at 9:30 and I’ll explain why I made that question.
I’m just trying not to get my website shut down
He’s evading questions again. Why is that?
It’s really simple and again is no different from censorship in works of fiction. I don’t care how nasty is a videogame, movie or book, it’s still fiction, and fiction doesn’t hurt anybody and I am not the only person that thinks this. To quote Kumiko Yamada, representative of the Japanese wing of the Women’s Institute Of Contemporary Media Culture:
“The so-called sexual violence in manga and video games is a made-up
thing and as such does not threaten the rights of actual people.”
Now pay attention because it gets a little too interesting, and you’ll soon see why I asked that previous question.
If Kyo sees that drawing as CP, he’s indirectly equating that drawing with real life CP, and by extension he’s equating violent comic strips in ComicFury with real life violence. What does this mean?
If Kyo sees something in fiction in ComicFury he doesn’t approve, he’ll remove it; if he’s okay with fiction with ideas he does approve, he will keep it in the site. But if Kyo removes my comic he sees as real life CP, by the same token him keeping the violent comics in ComicFury must mean that he’s supporting acts of violence and murder in real life.
So again, why I asked “If you equate that comic as CP, will you equate the other violent comic strips as real life murder/violence”? To confirm one of two things:
If he said yes that would mean that he approves and supports murder and violence and ideas that appear in the comics posted in ComicFury, even bad ideas such as rape and genocide.
If he said no that would mean a contradiction with his beliefs on what he sees as fiction and reality.
Otherwise, would an evasion be worse than a direct response?
And before you jump on me with comments such as “Why are you doing an accusation without evidence?”, Kyo is the one following the accusation without evidence in the first place, resulting in a permanent ban in ComicFury against me without any consultation.
Let’s go back to the emails. After Kyo admitted cares more about his website than solving an issue based on a false accusarion I sent him another message on the same day at 11:52:
You said before that it was reported yesterday. Can you give me information about the person who made the report?
I knew that I wasn’t coming back at ComicFury, but of course I wanted to investigate more on this subject towards a different direction. This wasn’t the first time I was attacked for something I drew, or for my beliefs or even politics on social media.
At that point after seeing Kyo more welcoming towards avoiding questions, false accusations and censorship than solutions to a problem that is sadly becoming more common in the Internet culture, I decided to look for my aggressors, because if they keep getting away with this me and more artists will become victims of false accusations in the future.
This time there was no response.
At first Kyo was able to respond to me quickly, between +30 minutes to one hour. But no response appeared. Maybe he’s confused by my question? Of course not, it was a simple and well formatted question under the English language, so why the silence?
Perhaps Kyo protects false accusers? Maybe he’s friends with them? Maybe Kyo lied and made the “reported” up thing and used it as an excuse to censor me?
These questions I asked myself didn’t seem to get nowhere, so the next day, 24th of June of 2020, still without a response I decided to send him this message at 4:15:
Since the last 18 hours there was radio silence from your part, so I think it’s best if I show my cards openly.
I don’t plan to return to ComicFury, if that was what you are wondering. Yet I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that my 5 years of work has been banished for something I made 3 years ago (the comic about Sweden you mention).
I believe this is a coordinated attack from ideological barbarians who disagree with me politically that instead of ignore my art and move on with their lives they smelt blood and decided to wait for me to release something to be extremely offended (like my last comic, the pink-haired girl becoming black) and decided to use one of my old comics to get me cancelled under the pretense of CP (which it isn’t, by the way). It’s not the first time that I was attacked by these barbarians.
The reason for me to ask about the person (or persons) who reported that is to prevent more problems from these ideological barbarians in the future.
With that said, can you give me information about the person or persons who made the report?
I think this sums everything up.
I do believe that this is a coordinated attack from censors hiding in the shadows that disagree with me and my art, waiting for the right opportunity to perform censorship on me, so in order to make others to take me down they decide to watch my webcomic A Yurist Closet, which in case you couldn’t tell before it’s a dark comedy parody of the Yuri genre in anime. Many very outrageous events happen in the webcomic, and what’s very interesting is that none of the censors said nothing until then because my comic #152 was too extreme for them.
In the comic:
What happened when Pearl from Steven Universe was staring at Rose with jealousy while having a mental speech by Hitler?
Censors did nothing.
What happened when Homura Akemi from Puella Magi Madoka Magica became a muslim and suicide bomber?
Censors did nothing.
What happened when Kagami and Konata from Lucky Star were raped by muslim men in Sweden?
Censors did nothing –at that time.
What happened when Yagyu from Senran Kagura suggested Hibari to do a threesome with her dead little sister Nozomi?
Censors did nothing.
What happened when Daidoji from Senran Kagura was racist remarks towards black people to a black hole while punching it?
Censors did nothing.
What happened when a Panzer IV and a Sturmgeschütz III from Girls Und Panzer were having sex?
Censors did nothing.
What happened when Madoka Kaname from Puella Magi Madoka Magica wished white people to cease existing and became a black girl in the process and high technology stops existing?
This time censors decided to act and look for older comics to build false evidence in order to get me deplatformed.
At the time I’m writing this, there’s no response from Kyo.
The last reply I received from him was “I’m just trying not to get my website shut down”.
What does it mean? Is he worried about the report? Is he putting more importance about the false accusation? Or is he worried about his website? Or even better, is he worried about those who supply him the necessary resources to keep his website going?
How do you try to censor an artist for an idea you don’t like? Say it’s offensive and it hurts your feelings.
How do you continue if they doesn’t bend the knee? Shame them in his social media sites.
How do you continue if shaming doesn’t work? Make a wiki-like site and disguise it as objective information.
How do you continue if creating a wiki page doesn’t work? Stop attacking the artist and investigate on who’s supplying him with resources to create the website.
How can you attack the supplier to create the website? Keep investigating about who’s supplying the supplier.
What do you do when you find the one supplying the supplier? Report about a crime in the supplier’s website so they can inform the supplier so they suppress the artist without any second thought in the middle of a panic.
No discussion allowed, only capitulation. Bend the knee.
Never ask inconvenient questions.
Obey the hegemony.
While reading all this text you may have forgotten about one point I made in the first paragraphs, about me being banned precisely that day after I released a certain comic strip the same day, the 22nd of June of 2020. I’m going to show you.
Here’s the comic:
In case you don’t see the comic, I’ll describe it:
It’s a three-panel comic about my webcomic A Yurist Closet. It’s the 152nd strip and it’s titled “At your expense”.
In the first panel there are two characters: a human girl named Madoka Kaname, and an animal-like creature named Kyubey, both of them from the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Madoka is excited and wants to make a wish with Kyubey, a magical being capable to grant wishes.
In the first panel, Madoka says “Kyubey, I’m going to make a wish! I wish that white people never existed!”
To which Kyubey responds indifferently “…are you sure?”
In the second panel there’s a closer view of Madoka while showing a modern city as background with tall buildings, including a plane and a car.
Madoka says “Yes, we can fight racism by promoting inclusion via excluding whites with equality!”
To which Kyubey replies off-screen “If you say so…”
In the third panel there’s the same previous view of Madoka, but her appearance is changed, she’s a dark-skinned girl with a bigger nose and wider lips, including a change on the color of her eyes from red to brown and her hair color from pink to black. She’s wearing a white t-shirt with the words “HIV POSITIVE POSITIVITY”. The background was changed as well, showing a poor village, with soil and dirty water instead of a modern road. Instead of tall buildings there are shorter buildings with lower technology.
No dialogue.
This comic is the real reason I was censored. Censors didn’t like the comic and therefore they went back to one of my old comics to report it as CP (which again, it’s not). All of this was made on purpose and Kyo refuses to answer my questions and is not willing to solve the problem because he is colluding with forces that prefer censorship on jokes they don’t approve.
You may think that I crossed a line even if it was a joke. That there are several boundaries that shall not be touched when making jokes. That only the correct jokes should exist.
It was a joke.
You may have not liked it, that’s fine. Maybe the joke wasn’t good. Maybe it wasn’t an appropriate joke. Maybe it was a joke without any sense. Maybe it’s the most offensive joke you’ve ever seen in your life.
But it was a joke.
And what if you don’t believe it was a joke? Then there you have it, that’s exactly what would you believe if you were inclined to censor and persecute artists.
Comicfury is operating under the bias similar to the big tech giants like Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Youtube. You can upload any content you want as long as it’s something they agree for and/or you are allineated by their politics and ideology, and if you get banned for it they won’t explain why. And in retrospective I’ve should seen this coming given the current political climate, where you can get banned from literally anything, even if it’s not in the Terms of Service.
There’s a catch, however.
If you can’t put two and two together and are wondering where am I going with these facts and why I stated before with Kyo being okay with violence in real life? It’s actually something very simple:
If they are removing everything they disagree with from their platform, isn’t okay to assume that everything that is still on their platform is something they agree with, support and endorse? If you directly remove stuff you disagree with then you are implying that the stuff still left is stuff you agree with.
My issue isn’t just “Oh I’m banned what I’m going to do”, my issue here is in the era of active censorship of art I made many strips for A Yurist Closet with offensive fictional nature -which is the premise of the webcomic-, censors saw my comic of black Madoka, they report the webcomic very selectively with an older comic I made 3 years back to build the pretense that it’s something completely unacceptable equating it with a real life crime despite it was fiction with no one being exploited, Kyo getting it banned, presenting the comic as a real life crime, evading my disclaimers of the characters’ age and not advocating violence, refusing to answer my questions and refusing to help me identify the censors who wanted me banned with the very open possibility that the next artist who makes a joke that censors consider offensive be the next target.
You might not care about my webcomic, you might not care about me, and that’s fine, but this is a story of an artist being censored by an unknown person with evil intentions.
This artist could be you the next day. Because if it happened to me, it can happen to you too.
Funny enough, one of the censors against me, generally identified as Alpacaman, who has a large history of actively trying to discourage me failed to do so. So since I can’t bend the knee, he’s asking directly in the forum of DeviantArt to “do something” against me:
This also proves something else about those who advocate censorship on those with ideas and jokes they don’t like. It will never be enough for censors to ban someone from a specific website, censors want them completely disappeared from the face of Earth and Internet. And when that someone finally is disappeared, the next thing that will happen is that the censors will rub their hands like villains from a movie, asking “Who’s next?”.
And before you bring up the “If you followed the Terms of Service nothing would have happened to you” argument, realize that ToS are made so vague and subjective interpretation in order to ban anyone they don’t like, similar to what’s happening with Youtube, Facebook and Twitter to again, censor anyone they don’t like.
In the end, censors and puritans want to persecute anyone they don’t like and will try to blackmail and threaten those to make them bend the knee and capitulate. And if the persecuted ones won’t bend the knee, censors will make their lives harder by any means necessary.
Because there’s nothing a censor hates more than someone who is out of their control.
This is my warning to all webcomic artists. ComicFury can screw you over and your art and there’s nothing you can do about it.
AsFoxger 