She has published her full letter on her blog, and here are the points she numerates in her lengthy letter:
1. Anti-English Spectrum’s Cafe Violates Korean Law and Naver Cafe’s Operating Principles
. . .
2. The Purpose of Anti-English Spectrum Cafe is to Promote Racial Hatred and Discrimination, Not to Improve the Education System in Korea
. . .
3. The Activities, Content, and Purpose of the Anti-English Spectrum Cafe Are Clearly Prohibited Under the Naver Cafe Terms of Service Agreement
. . .
4. As the Leading International Korean Internet Company, NHN Should Take a Stand Against Xenophobia, Racial Hatred and Discrimination
And in closing:
NHN Corp. should take a stand against racism, xenophobia and the proliferation of hate speech that only serves to tarnish Naver’s good name and reputation. Toward such an end I strongly suggest that Naver:* Remove content that claims foreigners are targeting Korean children in order to sexually molest them.
* Remove content that spreads rumors of foreigners seeking to infect Koreans with AIDS or other diseases.
* Remove content that contains racially derogatory images and messages that promote racial hatred and discrimination such as the group’s many “promotional posters.”
* Remove content that profiles, targets and stigmatizes individuals on the basis of race and nationality in order to expose them to greater suspicion.
* Remove content that involves vigilante activities such as the tracking or stalking of any persons, whether Koreans or foreigners.
* Remove content that targets interracial couples and seeks to stigmatize and degrade Koreans for having any kind of relationships with foreigners.
Two days ago the Association of Teachers of English in Korea [ATEK] put out a press release pledging their support. Here is an excerpt of their press release:
The Association for Teachers of English in Korea (ATEK) is pledging support to recent calls for NHN, the parent company of Naver.com, to take action against the online community of the Anti English Spectrum (AES), a race hate group that advocates vigilante tactics against foreign teachers that operates on Naver.com.
Letters were posted to the NHN Corporation, both in Korea and in Irvine, California, where the company's US branch is located. In the letters, written by Andrea Vandom, a PhD student in International Relations at the University of California, it is explained that the racist material on the Anti English Spectrum's page violates Naver's user agreement.
On the page it is suggested that AIDS infected foreign teachers are purposely spreading the disease, while molesting children, raping Korean woman and consuming large quantities of narcotics. These accusations have also been printed onto calling cards and distributed on streets of Seoul.
In her letters to the NHN Corporation, Vandom stated:
"This group’s highly defamatory statements violate Article Ga-4 (Defamatory Posts) of
Naver cafe’s terms of service agreement and rise to the level of violations of the Korean criminal code."
Vandom also pointed out that Article 4 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), which the Republic of Korea fully supports, states that the promotion of racial hatred, such as in posters used by the Anti English Spectrum on their Naver page, is illegal. By hosting these posters Naver is in effect assisting racist activities, which under Article 4(a) of the ICERD, is an offense that Korea has declared "punishable by law".
. . .
ATEK, a support group for over a thousand foreign teachers in Korea, wishes to give its full support to Vandom and her letters to the NHN Corporation. Consequently we expect NHN to enforce their user policies and remove all offensive material from the Anti English Spectrum's Naver page.
You'll find the rest of the press release on this Gusts of Popular Feeling post; for the sake of brevity I left out a few paragraphs.
Gusts of Popular Feeling has covered the activity of Anti-English Spectrum extensively, so consult the posts
* "The achievements of Anti-English Spectrum"
* "How to make foreign English teachers an AIDS threat in 5 easy steps"
for background information, especially regarding the group's influence on legislation against foreign English teachers.
Additionally, the powerpoint presentation "Who is Anti-English Spectrum?" created by Benjamin Wagner and prepared for the National Human Rights Commission of Korea was posted to Andrea Vandom's blog in September is a detailed account of who the group is and what they do. It certainly deserves a read.
I've written a number of posts about them as well, most recently two months ago to highlight the Korea Times' continuing favorable coverage to the "Citizens' Association for Lawful English Education," as well as a broad summary of their activities. The first example of favorable coverage of the "civic group" I cited was in the Korea Times on May 15, 2008:
Pictures depicting foreign teachers holding a ``sexy costume party'' in 2005 were the key driver for the creation of the civic group.
``There are many illegal foreign teachers. We organized this group to help make our schools and hagwons free of these problematic teachers,'' said Lee Eun-ung, manager of the Internet cafe.
Most members of the group participate in online activities, and some also actively engage in off-line activities to help police find foreigners who engage in drug use. So far, they have played a role in nabbing more than 60 people in illegal drug-related cases.
``Sometimes we stay up at night tracking and watching foreign nationals. We have even found some foreign teachers that take drugs then teach students at hagwons the following day,'' Lee said. ``We will continue to help police deport these foreign teachers.''
Though the "civic group" is now known as "Citizens' Association for Lawful English Education," and portrays itself as committed to education and cleaning up the industry, their motives were far more transparent in the beginning, when they called themselves the "Anti-English Spectrum" and had as their banner the infamous pictures of Korean women participating in a wet t-shirt contest.
Their motives are certainly visible in their statement of purpose, translated by Korea Beat last year; an excerpt:
Anger at the arrogant English Spectrum, alive and well as ever despite criticism for its debasement of Korean women, and the expulsion of illegal, low-quality English instructors.
The small but powerful country, the Republic of Korea!
We are Anti-English Spectrum, fighting for justice for a land whose heart is not yet shriveled up.
Our work holds meaning for our country and our society. We do it together!
This is the citizens’ movement for the expulsion of illegal foreign language teachers.
The first line of their statement of purpose
Until the degradation of Korean women by English Spectrum is ended
shows what they're ultimately about.
Anyway, the Korea Times and Kang Shin-who covered the story of Vandom's letter Sunday evening.
In short, I think going after the group for its hate speech in violation of Naver's own terms of service is productive. Trying to close sites simply by virtue of their controversial material will lead to dark places, and indeed ATEK Communications Director told The Marmot's Hole's Dann Gaymer crowd that's not what he's after:
Put simply, unpopular speech is fine and we don’t take issue with it. Yet when what is being said is unfounded and could potentially cause harm to someone that is an issue: Saying you don’t like foreign teachers is acceptable, saying foreign teachers are giving your kids AIDS isn’t. It’s offensive and could be detrimental to the fate of English teachers in Korea if some sort of hysteria were to develop because of it.
Once again ATEK does not want to see the Anti English Spectrum’s page shut down, we merely support the call for the removal of all material that is offensive to foreign English teachers.
Objecting to hate speech posted in violation of the host's own terms is not only more sound, but more reasonable.
12 comments:
And if Naver DOESN'T do what Andrea asks...? Sorry to sound cynical here, but there's no reason to believe anything will happen here. There's no consequences other than going against ones own rules / TOS - and the only people pointing this out are people that barely use Naver anyway...
Unless someone can prove they've been harmed by this material and takes Naver up to court (for libel - oh the irony), there's no reason to expect compliance.
I think we will see cooperation from NHN. This is clearly not a "fight" (despite the Kang spin) but a mature request for Naver to live up to its global image. It's a question of corporate values. You want to go global, you better act it.
If you read the letter you will see what is being asked for is 1) very reasonable and 2) quite limited.
I think it's about how much support English teachers and others can muster. If people support they call for the removal of the bad content, it'll be gone.
NHN is really serious about being international. They made the Forbes 2000 list in 2008. From what I can tell NHN is pretty cool company and I really like Naver, but I'm thinking twice about using their online dictionary these days (it is really good tho!)
NHN USA has just teamed up with the Seattle based social networker "Wetpaint" on a new project. Ben Elowitz is CEO over there. And Phil Yun is CEO of NHN USA. I bet these guys would hate to get bad press on this issue. Who needs it?
I'd say this is something that can be worked out. Naver doesn't really want posts on its website saying that foreigners are conspiring to give Korean women and children AIDS. Or saying that foreigners are "idiots" and "Black Pig[s]." That shit is just wrong.
I'm giving this focused attempt my full support.
The bullet points at the end of the letter say it all. I think reasonable Koreans will have no problem getting behind them.
Interested groups should go first to the human rights commission and have them investigate the group, and push the case there that AES is a hate group.
From there, dealing with AES vis-à-vis Naver would be an easier task and one that would be taken more seriously because it would carry more weight.
You can file a complaint Kushibo. The NHRCK takes 3rd party complaints. Please do and post about it.
I have made inquiries along those lines. I have sent an email (main body below) to the email address from the NHRCK, most recently about a month ago, but I have still received no reply:
I am writing to you because I have some questions about how to proceed about a certain issue that has become very troubling in recent months.
There is a group called Anti-English Spectrum that purports to get rid of "illegal English teachers" in Korea.
There are many in South Korea's English-speaking foreign community that are concerned about this group because it appears to be promoting hatred and spreading false information about English teachers and other foreigners living in Korea.
In particular, the group claims to track (stalk) foreigners trying to find information to use to get them deported (such as drug use, illegal teaching, etc.). It appears they may be stalking people who are innocent of these crimes as well. Whatever the situation, they are singling out their targets based on race. It also appears that their motivation is due to animosity toward Koreans and non-Koreans who engage in interracial dating.
What makes this group further dangerous is that many newspapers like the Chosun Ilbo and the Korea Times routinely quote them in stories about foreign criminals, even though their data may be in accurate.
What I'm writing about now is to find out what can be done about this group. Is it possible to investigate them for violations of human rights or promoting hate crimes? Is it possible to file a petition against them?
I appreciate any advice you can give me.
Since I don't know anybody there directly, I simply used the address at their website, nhrc@humanrights.go.kr, but as I said, I have gotten no response. Do you know of someone I could contact at the NHRCK directly about this?
The surefire best way is to print out a complaint form and mail it in. They do accept email complaints, however, if they are sent as attachments. That said, their email system frequently breaks down and it's not uncommon for email not to get through or go unanswered. The email system itself takes a lot of the blame. I know someone working there who loves to use gmail and does, but just can't (policy issues) when its official biz.
(이성택 is very conscientious and helpful, you might try him. His email is seong with the same suffix, if of course it's working...)
Kang Shin-who's article made me sick... Again. That boy needs therapy.
Mr. Wagner makes a good point about spinning this as "a question of corporate values" and global marketing. But ultimately, I think this spin will only be taken seriously if it's delivered by respected Koreans who are sympathetic to ATEK's position. Not to sound negative, but I think we're a long way off from foreign residents having any true influence over the policies of Korean corporations or government. No matter how reasonable or well-worded ATEK's position is, it likely won't be heard as anything more than a bunch of arrogant foreigners poking their funny-looking noses into things that aren't any of their business. But if some Korean support can be drummed up for ATEK's position, NHN might actually hear what's being said.
Peter wrote:
Mr. Wagner makes a good point about spinning this as "a question of corporate values" and global marketing. But ultimately, I think this spin will only be taken seriously if it's delivered by respected Koreans who are sympathetic to ATEK's position.
Up to a point, I think you're right, but it's more a case of taking this to proper Korean channels, which would by definition be populated by respected Koreans.
This is one reason why I think going to the NHRCK and getting AES officially designated as a hate group (or some such thing) would be the best first step. All other efforts would have immensely more credibility, including any move to get offensive material removed from their website.
Not to sound negative, but I think we're a long way off from foreign residents having any true influence over the policies of Korean corporations or government.
I don't agree with that at all. Foreign residents have successfully sued for or successfully lobbied for severance pay, inclusion in the national health insurance scheme, changes to visa regulations, etc.
In fact, I think an organization like ATEK could have respect and clout, particularly if run by people with what in neo-Confucian Korea would be seen as respectable backgrounds (but even if it's not, it still can project authority). To some extent, it is already being treated as such by the press.
No matter how reasonable or well-worded ATEK's position is, it likely won't be heard as anything more than a bunch of arrogant foreigners poking their funny-looking noses into things that aren't any of their business.
Not only is that notion wrong, it's unnecessarily defeatist. While it may be true in some cases that some person may not get a full hearing because he/she is not a Korean national, it's a guaranteed outcome that there will be no full hearing if that same person doesn't try to effect a change at all.
There are enough counter-examples to this defeatism that such a notion shouldn't be an overriding concern. The more important thing to consider is not whether to go about effecting change over some wrongdoing or unfair practice, but how to go about doing so.
In that vein, I may not agree with this course of action, but my hat's off to Andrea Vandom (and her supporters) for getting off their arses to do something.
But if some Korean support can be drummed up for ATEK's position, NHN might actually hear what's being
NHN might hear it, but will they be able to do anything? Will they want to dive into a free speech issue that comes down to a war of words between two competing groups?
Go to the NHRCK.
Peter - In seven months time Korea reversed its position on HIV restrictions because of a small group of foreign residents.
"Korea is moving to scrap its policy scrap its policy of banning foreigners with HIV/AIDS.
The plan emerged in the face of protest from foreigners and legal experts against what they call discriminatory measures."
Also, while there's nothing wrong with good strategy, in this case I'm not trying to put a corporate values 'spin' on it, I actually see inaction as against the values that NHN have asserted they already possess. They need to move in order to hold on to their identity. Take a look at the letter.
Kushibo - I agree about the NHRCK. But this approach won't forclose that option.
Update in the KT from Kang Shin-who:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/11/117_55714.html
AES is not a "blog." And I wish that somewhere in the media, while these issues are being covered, they'd also report the facts Wagner and Gusts of Popular Feeling have cited disproving these claims.
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