An X (formerly Twitter) user '@tj_littlejohn', who claimed to create an app called 'Gib', where users could upload photos mimicking the art style of Japanese animation house , shared a post claiming that the studio had sent him a 'Cease and Desist' order over the application.
The claim comes amid an extremely popular social media trend, where users submit their photos to OpenAI's ChatGPT, asking it to reimagine them as .
An archived version of this post can be seen here.
(Archives of more posts sharing this letter can be seen and .)
But...?: The letter is fake. Studio Ghibli has categorically denied sending such an order to any entity.
How did we find out the truth?: To start with, we looked up the name of the law firm that had sent the letter, identified as 'Sakura & Hoshino LLP' in the viral claim.
We found several results related to characters with the same name in the fantasy video games series and a manga series called .
The search also showed us a with this name, but did not show any results for a law firm or a legal entity.
On X, we noticed that a few users had attempted to contact the company, but their emails had failed to deliver on account of the email address not existing.
See this user's post .
We then looked up the contact number mentioned in the letter on Google, which reverted with multiple news reports about why '555' as digits in a US-based phone number was often used in media, such as ones by and .
These reports indicated that several phone numbers with the prefix 555 were fictitious in nature, and that "phone companies reserved 555-0100 through to 555-0199 for fictional use."
Together, these details indicate that the company does not exist and point towards the letter being fake.
Did Studio Ghibli issue any warning?: To check whether Studio Ghibli had commented on the viral claim, we looked for more information on the internet.
This led us to a by Japanese news organisation by Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), which carried a statement by the studio, who clarified that the letter was fake.
Studio Ghibli told NHK, "We have not issued a warning letter," adding that the post carried a 'fake letter'.
This is translated version of NHK's report, which carries Studio Ghibli's statement about the viral claim.
Conclusion: A fake letter has gone viral with the false claim that Japan's Studio Ghibli issued a Cease and Desist letter to a person who was attempting to make an application where people could mimic their art style.
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