From the Chosun Ilbo:
Bianca Mobley, a 19-year-old American panelist for KBS TV talk show “Global Beauties Chat,” has asked police to punish Internet users who have downloaded two pictures from her homepage without permission, uploaded them to other sites with defamatory comments written on them.
In one picture, Mobley is seen hugging a man and in the other she is posing as if she is caressing the breasts of another woman. Some internet users uploaded these pictures on other sites and wrote messages calling her “promiscuous,” said the police.
* Update: More from the Korea Times. People should be punished for hacking into an email, or into a private blog or website. Not really sure what the standard punishment is in those cases. However, in spite of how malicious Korean netizens can be---I doubt they just called her "promiscuous"---I don't think we should get into punishing internet users for leaving mean comments on websites.
And, in line with the comment I left on this post, I think it's a good idea for foreigners here to be careful with what pictures the post of themselves on the internet. In this case Bianca's photos were scandalous because *gasp* she was hugging a man. In another case a teacher put photos of himself getting friendly with Korean girls at a local bar and had his picture passed around the local media. And an ugly episode of xenophobia began a few years ago by racy photos of white men and Korean women at a local club. We already know many Koreans consider foreigners promiscuous to begin with, and that some netizens are gunning for us anyway. It doesn't take much sleuthing for an unhappy student or a disgruntled netizen to dig up a Facebook or Myspace page, or to find a blog entry detailing somebody's Friday night, and it takes little to get the xenophobic crowd wound up. So keep those profiles private, and save the party pics for emails, not for blogs.
9 comments:
Can't they just upload her bikini photos or paste her head on a Playboy model like everyone else?
"downloaded pictures from her homepage without her permission"
hahahahahahahahahaha
If she is stupid enough to put pictures of herself in "compromising" positions then she deserves whatever the KoNetNazis do to her. And besides, who the fuck cares what KoNetNazis do? If "hugging a man" and "posing as if caressing the breasts" is promiscuous then she is being stalked by either Christians or prepubescents, so fuck 'em. I have never understood how celebrities have been driven to suicide over Internet rumormongering, but I guess that is because I am not famous.
A friend contacted me not too long ago on FaceBook and told me to take down some photos of the two of us together because she's now a movie actress and she "wants her privacy".
What does that have to do with me? I'm not the one who chose to be in the public eye (and besides, I told her "What privacy? You're an 'actress' in Thailand... no one knows who the hell you are anyway".
Bianca's the same. If she wanted her privacy, she should be careful what she puts on her homepage. But to expect "privacy" when in the public eye? Not gonna happen.
I was thinking what Lorne and ROK Hound said. She's a public figure, and she's gotta deal with all the bullshit that comes with it. If she's just gonna whinge about photos where she's having a bit of fun, and people are gonna say she's slutty or promiscuous or whatever. Maybe she just needs to be reminded where she is.
When she has a serial killer stalker, then she can complain. :p
Yeah, I'm not really sure what's she's going for with this. Posting people's Facebook pics is mean, is a violation of their trust, and is a violation of their privacy, but I don't think it's anything illegal. Maybe there's more to the story, such as somebody hacking into a private account . . . or maybe it's just a case of cultural misunderstanding in the sense that it's very common for Americans to post party pics of themselves on myspace or facebook or wherever, but those might not be received the same way in Korea.
Maybe it's like the sexualization of little kids here . . . schools will dance their kindergarten students in halter-tops and miniskirts for the school festivals, and will be incredulous when foreigners point out the inherent sexuality of the display. Americans might hang out in bars and hug and touch people in joking ways that might be lost in translation with Koreans. Think back to SpectrumGate and to the mini scandal with the kindergarten teacher who had his myspace photos posted around the netizen blogosphere . . . if the women in those photos were white, nobody would have cared.
I don't know where I'm going with this. I'm tired and am going to find a movie on TV.
I don't think she can do anything about the actual downloading of the photos. As several of us have said, when you're in the public eye there is no expectation of privacy.
However, if what they wrote about her or wrote on these posted photos was derogatory, she may have a case for defamation. With how draconian Korea's defamation/slander/libel laws are, it wouldn't surprise me if she won.
Just read the KT article. If the photos were ona private webpage, I wonder how "private" it was? I clicked to her Cyworld page, but unless you are one of her 일촌, you can't see ANY of her photos.
Is Cyworld easy to hack?
Anyway, I go back on what I said earlier. I thought it was just a public accessible webpage. But if it is indeed private, like her Cyworld page, then the hacking is an offense under Korean laws.
And then there's still the issue of the "defamation" (if it reaches that level according to the law).
I'd still like to see the photos in question, to see what all the hullabaloo is about.
Where can I find those pictures of that guy getting friendly with those Korean girls in a bar? All the links are dead.
The kindergarten teacher? I can't link directly to it right now, but type 원어민 into Naver , scroll down the page and you'll see it's the first image result.
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