Good morning everyone! 
やっぱり涼しいとやる気が出るね！みんなは夏派？冬派？俺は冬派だから早く冬になってほしい。 
そんな事はさて置き。
Today, I won’t be talking about a meme or an internet slang, but we will be talking about an unspoken rule on Japanese social media, especially on X (twitter).
X (旧Twitter) 
Before we dive into the main topic, have you ever wondered why X is so popular in Japan?
There are many other websites that list the reason, and although some have different reasons, they always have several key reasons why it is so popular here. One of the reasons is that the Japanese version of Twitter was released before Facebook and Instagram. The second reason is that the simple mobile UI was well received by Japanese users. Reason number three is that unlike Facebook, twitter has anonymity. Unlike Facebook, you are not required to use your real name on twitter. Because many Japanese people in general don’t like giving their personal information to the public, this was another point for Twitter. The final reason is although Twitter had a word count, it didn’t interfere with Japanese because of kanji and already existing slang that shortened longer phrases and words. Due to these reasons plus the early translation release, Twitter was able to pull and retain it’s users.
TLDR: It came first, people couldn’t be bothered to change platforms.
Anyways, let’s get back to the topic.
FF 
X has been a big part of Japanese internet culture, long enough that there are some manners and netiquettes you have to follow ( not actually required, but some say it is highly recommended) when using X in Japan.
Before we talk about the manners and netiquettes, let’s take a look at an abbreviation that can be seen a lot on X. In Japanese X people will use the abbreviation ‘FF’.
No, people are not talking about Final Fantasy. This is an abbreviation for ‘follow follower’. This abbreviation is used to describe that you are following a person and that person follows you back. This means that people will occasionally say FFさん when they are posting for people in the ‘FF’ group.
If you have ever used X, you would know that not everyone you follow follows you back. These people are usually called FF外, or sometimes people simply refer it as 外. Which simply means that they are not in the ‘follow follower’ circle. People will use this word when they want to butt into a trending conversation.
Example:
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FF外から失礼します。私はそのような躾をするぐらいなら、里親を探したほうがいいと思います。
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Sorry for responding even though we don’t follow each other, but if you are going to raise your pet in such a manner, you should look for a foster parent.
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外から失礼。本当にそれは愛と言えるのでしょうか。
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Sorry, responding as an outsider. Can you really call that love?
Example with furigana:
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FF外（がい）から失礼（しつれい）します。私（わたし）はそのような躾（しつけ）をするぐらいなら、里親（さとおや）を探（さが）したほうがいいと思（おも）います。
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Sorry for responding even though we don’t follow each other, but if you are going to raise your pet in such a manner, you should look for a foster parent.
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外（そと）から失礼（しつれい）。本当（ほんとう）にそれは愛（あい）と言（い）えるのでしょうか。
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Sorry, responding as an outsider. Can you really call that love?
Why do people do this? It is because some people on the internet do not like people that they do not follow replying to them, or they simply don’t like to interact with people that are not in a ‘follow follower’ relationship.
Some people consider replying to someone that is FF外 as rude.
Then, why don’t they just make their accounts private? Because they still want to get followers and in-order to get followers, people will need to be able to see their posts. 
I know… as someone who used the internet pre-Twitter, this is a WILD concept to me. Although this is not a set rule by X, and it is not the law of the internet, you do not have to follow this rule, but there are people that would REALLY get butt-hurt if you do not follow this unique rule, some people will straight out block you.
It is said that saying FF外から失礼します started due to a reply to a tweet from 2009 that read, ‘フォロー外から失礼’ and from this time forward, people started to think that replying to someone your are not ‘friends’ with was rude.
Due to the kind of platform X is, some don’t really care about these manners and netiquettes as long as you are polite, but there are many people that bring in the Japanese 挨拶 culture into X since ‘you should always greet and introduce yourself’ when entering a conversation that is happening between FFs. Many old-school internet users that used the internet way before Twitter say that all of these new ‘rules’ on twitter make it such a suffocating place since you can’t just post/reply/repost without checking if it is okay to do so with the OP, even though it is supposed to be an open space for everyone.
無言フォロー 
As mentioned above, some people really do not like it when non ‘friends’ comment on their post. You think that is crazy? There are some that do not like it when people follow you without telling them that you are going to follow them.
If you are browsing X or Instagram and see 無言（むごん）フォローお断（ことわ）り, this means that they if you are going to follow them, they expect you to introduce yourself before following through DMs. This is probably very different from the western side of the internet. On the western side of the internet, people seem to just follow and reply to whoever they wish, but on Japanese social media, although there are people that do not mind this, there are many people that follow this ‘rule’ where you greet someone before following a person.
Since there are people like this on Japanese X, it is generally recommended to check the person’s profile before replying or following, and if you are not sure it is advised to say something like, フォローしました。よろしくお願いします if you do not want to be blocked by them.
Reposting 
Another thing you will need to watch out for is reposting. Reposting is a feature of X that everyone has and has the right to use, however, some people think it is bad manners to repost something without asking for the poster’s permission. Since this is not a set rule on the internet or on X you are not required to ask for permission, but if someone’s profile has 無断（むだん）リポスト禁止（きんし）, it would be best to let them know you are reposting juuust in case. Nothing bad is going to happen to you, but nothing beats avoiding unnecessary conflict.
In my opinion, giving credit to the OP is important, but getting permission to use a feature that is provided to everyone is pretty wild.
Since these are basically just ‘home rules’, it is not required to follow these, and not following these rules won’t get you banned, but it surely can get you blocked by some people!
なんか、こんな面倒くさいと使う気失せるけど、みんながみんなルールを気にして使ってるわけじゃないから別にそんなに神経質になる必要はないと思う。知らんけど。
偏見かもだけど、こういうルール守ってる人たちってネット経験薄い人多いから、個人的には関わらないほうがいいと思う。
Fuga
If you missed the previous posts, you can check them out here!