The Korea Times on cyber-assault: “Nothing, however, could be as serious_and fatal_as the barrage of verbal abuses and character assassinations posted on the Web, mainly targeting celebrities. People who post these attacks, if and when they lead to victims’ deaths, are murderers and they should be punished as such.”
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18 Comments
It’s not the fault of Koreans. Koreans are always KIND and POLITE to foreigners and of course to other Koreans as well. This is the effect American culture is having on Koreans.
Whatever happened to “Sticks and stones … ”
Cyber-terrorism is whatever unjustifiably prevents people from having their say. The delicate personal self-esteem of (Korean) people isn’t among that class of justifications.
Perhaps they should learn from our gentlemanly demeanor handling pawi and bluejives; quit their whingin’ and suck it up.
Regardless of the very fact that there are no logical reasons for committing suicide, notice how the the blame in the papers falls squarely on three so-called aberrations from the norms. All week newspapers have been blaming a) the lonely netizens b) her sexy image in contrast to her extreme shyness and c) her single parent childhood for unee’s suicide. Maybe pointing fingers is just what people do to make sense of a suicide, I don’t know. But there seems to be something self-serving and simplistic in the way the media dismisses suicides.
Sperwer’s right. “Sticks and stones!” People should have the right to say, “Good-riddance unee” if they damned-well feel like it. The problem is that, in a country driven by the notion of “saving face”, everyone in Korea–especially the media–pays way, way, way too much attention to these netizens. Don’t limit the freedom of speech, just ignore it if you must.
The use of real names is going to get messy. People punch their ID number into pretty much any site on the Net without a thought about security (then complain about Google…but that is a different issue) thus making them available to anybody that really wants to find them. There will be a lot of people operating under an assumed name I am sure….
Cyber-trolls exist everywhere, don’t they?
Cyber-trolls exist everywhere, don’t they?
The subject here is Korean “cyber-trolls”.
Sticks and stones? No way! It’s murder!
Korean really like to lay on the hyperbole in situations like this. Tragic vehicle accident in Area I? Hold it, that’s murder. Don’t want to pay us (all of) the production-target bonus because our illegal strikes and consequent missed production targets cost you a billion dollars? Murderer! We’re fighting for our very lives! Trying to make me pay less for my family’s food through free trade? You won’t subjugate us, bastard murderer! This calls for all out struggle.
Does the editorial distinguish between verbal abuse that happens in real life and internet? If not, why is cyber-trolling so bad?
Here’s the most confusing part for me is where the article states: “The inevitable (WHY INEVITABLE?) conclusion is that these “keyboard warriors,” as they are confusingly called, are psychopaths and very dangerous ones (MURDERERS!) at that.” However, the very next sentence describes the keyboard-warriors as “timid, shy people who would not and cannot confront their targets one-on-one.”
Are we all missing something about Korea that verbal abuse from anonymous strangers on the internet should be considered a serious threat to the fabric of its society? Or, is the editorial just terribly misguided?
Nice. So, as far as I can see, the Korea Times is basically advocating what amounts to an almost complete ban on the outing of potentially-embarrassing facts and/or opinions about… well… anyone. Because, after all, if they happen to suicide right after, it’s the fault of the ones who brought the information to light… it’s Murder Most Foul. So the next time a public figure involved in a corruption scandal jumps off a bridge, the police should look very carefully at the news reports that issued right before. After all, the murderer may be lurking in the offices of the Korean Times. Good to know that the Korean Times takes the time to think these editorials out.
Seriously, if someone wants to advocate for the passage or enforcement of tougher laws on things like libel or publication of embarrassing facts, they should just do that. Saying that someone (thousands of people in this case) should be charged with murder for attacking a public figure online just makes the person (or organization) look like an ass-hat.
It’s code. It means something like: “I can’t justify it with any principled rationale, but it’s the way things must be because (a) it’s 우리 문물; (b)the Korean thing to feel/do so we feel good; and/or (c) I’m the (Korean) boss.
It’s pretty peculiar that The Korea Times cites Yuni’s suicide to support its view that “keyboard warriors” are “psychopaths and very dangerous ones at that.” It really mixes up the past and the present. As these comments are post death in what way is Yuni in danger? Reading this sentence, “People who post these attacks, if and when they lead to victims’ deaths, are murderers and they should be punished as such,” someone with no knowledge of this event could infer that Yuni’s suicide was the result of cyber harassment. Was it? Better examples of cyber harassment exist, but I don’t recall any off them leading to death. Too bad for The Korea Times Dog Poop Girl still lives.
“Cruel and Coward” Damn the KT needs editing–it’s “cowardly” you crap fishwrapper
And what’s up with underscores instead of dashes? Dumb, dumb.
The only insightful thing in that rubbish editorial was: “There is an old Korean saying, ‘One gets a stomachache when his or her cousin buys land.’ The excessive, and unjustifiable, jealousy we Koreans feel about people who get rich and famous seems to have combined with another national weakness _ a propensity to speak ill of others behind their backs.” Yes, nutizens, you are a bunch of jealous, gossipy grandmas.
If she commited suicide, it’s because she didn’t get the professional help she needed or didn’t take her meds. It’s that simple. It has nothing to do with gossip (worse has happened to Korean celebrities that a little gossip (remember Beak Ji Yong?), shyness (again, Koreans misunderstanding ‘charisma’. As many others, she probably became a performer because she was shy), single parent upbringing (…and yet she became a famous singer. Sure didn’t stop Bill Clinton, either).
The fish-wrap went a little over the top with equating cyber-terrorism with murder, but I do think it is indicative of a larger and more disturbing problem. Koreans love to kick people when they are down.
They were critical of her plastic surgery? There’s about a thousand cosmetic parlors in Apgujeong but I’m sure it was Yuni keeping all of them in business. They said she got too much done? This is a country where they are advertising hymenplasty. Oh, but Yuni’s the one who’s too phony?
For those of you who say we should just ignore these cyber-attacks. If I had a loved one who died and someone said she dressed like a whore and I found out who said that, chances are I’d be in jail right now.
@ Maddlew,
I don’t understand your last sentence. Are you saying that she is not a whore? Or that she doesn’t dress like one.
Personally, I prefer girls who don’t look like whores, but you can go to jail no matter what.
You seem like a nice guy, why don’t you have a girlfriend?
Here’s a for instance: Say you’re walking down the street and you see an accident. There’s a body half-way through the windshield and you recognize a ring on a finger. Just to the side of the road there are two well-dressed young men pointing at the carnage and in near hysterical laughter. How do you feel?
This piling on does anger me. I’ll admit it. One of the comments by an individual after it was reported that Yuni had hung herself was that she had dressed like a whore.
dlatn, you read a couple of comments and then believe you’ve got someone dialed? Wow, you’re right! You must be some kind of genius. Why didn’t I think of that? I’ll get on that right away. Don’t tell my wife.
Just for fun…
“There is an old Korean saying, ‘One gets a stomachache when his or her cousin buys land.’ The excessive, and unjustifiable, jealousy Koreans feel about people who get rich and famous seems to have combined with another national weakness _ a propensity to speak ill of others behind their backs.
The power of the omission of one word. The original, it is (overgeneralized) self-reflection. Lose one word, it is racism. If I wrote that in KT letters or something I imagine that I would experience first hand the wrath of the nutizens.