A short update on my lawsuit against LINE. My lawyers filed our rebuttal to LINE’s brief of May 2026.

We make two points.

First, LINE does owe me the service. LINE claims its terms merely allow users to use the service, without obligating LINE to provide anything. But the terms grant users the right to use content which, by the terms’ own definition, is only accessible through the service. A right to use something LINE can simply refuse to serve is no right at all. Granting the right has to mean actually providing access.

Second, there was no “abnormal connection.” By LINE’s own definition, an abnormal connection is one that doesn’t go through their official clients and that looks like an attack or abuse of the service. Neither applies to me. I only ever used official clients: the Android app from Google Play, LINE’s Chrome extension on my Linux laptop, and the official Windows app in a VirtualBox VM over three years ago. The Chrome extension was officially provided by LINE at the time — they have since discontinued it, so today there is no way to use LINE in a browser at all. The only other extension in my browser was an ad blocker. No scripts, no automation, no API calls, no VPN or proxy. And no sign my account was compromised either.

Maybe using Linux, a VM, or logging in from abroad (two short trips to France and China in the two years before the ban) looked “unusual” in their logs. But none of that is against the terms, and people travel.

The next hearing is on June 17, 2026.

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