Thursday, November 19, 2009

Naver says no, Anti-English Spectrum to stay intact.

Naver has said the posts on Anti-English Spectrum internet cafe will stay:
Naver has rejected a request by native English teachers to remove what they call derogatory and racial postings on a blog known as the “Anti-English Spectrum.”

NHN, the operator of Naver, told The Korea Times Thursday they had concluded that they don’t see anything in the blog that violates the standing regulations or its internal rules.

“Our monitoring team examined cases stipulated in the request and concluded that Andrea Vandom’s claim doesn’t merit any corrective action,” said Kim Hyun-chang, Naver’s PR official.

For background, read the post two below this one, or browse the "We hate native speaker English teachers" category.

11 comments:

Stephen Beckett said...

I wonder if the complaint to the parent company in California might bring about a more productive response. It surely can't be many companies that would endorse a group that openly encourages its members to stalk people of different nationalities. Whether they have specifically contravened Naver's own code of conduct or not, this was a good opportunity for Naver to show its commitment to today's Korean society by at least reprimanding the group, or expressing concern. It has failed to do this.

brent said...

It is officially time to start our Anti-Anti-English Spectrum where we, the brave migrant workers representing different nations of the world, stand up and jail those criminal Koreans that would stalk, spy and try to interfere with our freedoms! We will at great personal cost stay up late follow around those AES members who would engage in illegal activities. We need to free the proud country of Korea from such imbeciles.

Anonymous said...

"We need to free the proud country of Korea from such imbeciles."

And when does it start the cross the line and be considered censorship?

Mike said...

Is stalking even illegal in Korea? If these people are publicly admitting to stalking shouldn't they be prosecuted? I don't know exactly how Korean law works... does a prosecutor have to have a complaining victim in order to press charges?

brent said...

Edward, it ruins the joke if I have to explain it...

This Is Me Posting said...

So what you're telling me is... Koreans at Naver chose to side with Koreans at AES and screw over foreigners?

I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked.

ZenKimchi said...

Not much, but I started an Anti-Anti English Spectrum Cafe group at Chatjip.com. Go to the "Community" section and sign up.

Mightie Mike's Mom said...

perhaps the letters should have been written to California's congress & state legislature, since Naver is trying to get a toe-hold in the US market... might be more effective

Mightie Mike's Mom said...

Mike, a prosecutor has to have a complaining victim AND the victim's lawyer willing and able to try it in court before the procetution will take the case to court. I speak from experience on this one.

Peter said...

As long as this is a "foreigners vs. Koreans" thing, the foreigners will lose every time. After all, how many foreigners use Naver? I'm sure NHN's real scared about losing THAT massive customer base. But if some Koreans started weighing in against Anti-English Spectrum, in Korean, NHN might start to worry about losing profits. And that, after all, is the only reliable way to modify a corporation's behaviour: threaten their profit margin.

Unknown said...

I think we Americans should straighten up our acts first before anything else really. A vast majority of the Korean population feels that many native English teachers look down on them with arrogance while trying to make an easy living from teaching English here in Korea. It is more than obvious that AES is inciting hatred against us w/o any use of solid evidence but racial hatred don't pop up all the sudden...it's a response to something that has been accumulating over the past decade.