In the papers today is a story of a university student caught on tape berating a cleaning lady. You can guess what happened to her personal information. From the JoongAng Daily:
Last Saturday, the cleaning lady’s daughter made a posting on the local Web portal Nate, the country’s third largest, saying that her mother was verbally abused by the student May 13 for failing to toss out a milk carton on a shelf in a campus toilet.
“Since the day I was born, I’ve never felt more miserable and useless than today,” read the post. “My mother was insulted in all sorts of ways by a female college student who’s just around her daughter’s age.”
The daughter alleged the student swore at her mother and demanded she throw away a paper milk carton in a public toilet. The cleaning lady explained she didn’t move it because there was milk left in the carton, so she thought it belonged to someone using the facility. According to the daughter, the college student cursed at her again and left the toilet.
. . .
Within hours, the student became the target of an Internet-based witch hunt. Photos of a female student and her address on a local social networking site spread on the Web, but the university said the hunters identified the wrong female.
The audio recording of the "경희대 패륜녀" is all over the Korean internet and is up on YouTube for the time being:
She joins 2005's "Dog Poop Girl" and last year's "Loser Girl" as young women made infamous, and public, thanks to the quick fingers of local netizens.
17 comments:
I think the real issue is that these are young women, and 'netizens' hate young women.
+ 1 at what Andrew said. If a guy had done that, what then?
I don't think netizens should have this much power but I have seen it used for good. There was once a video that was posted on a cat cafe of a pyschopathic owner torturing it. They eventually found out who he was and I believe he got punished for it but it's still a slippery slope...
I wish it were about sticking up for your elders and for the working class, but Andrew, you bring up a good point.
They eventually found out who he was and I believe he got punished for it
No, he didn't. Animal abuse is not a crime (in Korea).
1. Who taped this? Article says: "No one knows who recorded the altercation and uploaded it."
2. Interesting that because it's on youtube the uploaders identity will be protected because youtube refused to comply with the real name system. Wonder if this will be used to criticize what (in my opinion at least) was a good move by youtube.
3. Not sure how I feel about making the tape public. If the point of putting on the net was to identify this girl and get her harassed by internet crazies it's wrong.
But maybe the thinking was: the authorities will do nothing unless there is public attention -- so publicize it and drum up public support in order to push the authorities to do their job.
I can see the logic in the latter but it fails to take into account that the rude girl will end up suffering as much or more than the ajumma. And even after the ajumma gets her apology and whatever other compensation is fair, the rude girl is still further penalized beyond what is due.
I prefer Marcus Aurelius' advice:
"The best revenge is not to be like that."
It's not a South Korean catfight if one of the women doesn't curse out the other as "psycho". Not to mention that snide, annoyed tone that conveys how you're dealing with someone completely beneath you.
I'm reminded of a lovely incident that one of my female friends experienced in Korea - a 20 something male teen ran into her mother, knocking her down onto the street, then says says something to the effect of "Watch where you're going, you old hag".
So my friend slaps him across his face HARD and drags him to the police station. The idiot's parents was summoned to apologize.
She was livid just telling me the story months later.
Good times!
I find that stories like this (meaning a rude girl yelled at an older women, not the coverage of her notoriety) are not worth the publicity. People are rude and that's that. (Not that I'm defending the girl's attitude. The ahjumma totally deserves an apology.)
If this thing gets so much public attention, perhaps we should start posting on the internet each time a (male) office worker doesn't allow an older person have a seat on the subway. Or we should start a witch hunt for all the disorderly youths who disrespect their elders in public. Goodness knows I would love to have the Korean netizens hunting down every kid that I've baby-sat that talked back to me or threw rocks at me.
Yes, respect is important and those who are disrespectful should be reprimanded... but seriously? Something taken to this extent is just a waste of time. Some people spend too much time on the internet and not enough time being productive members of society.
From OP:
Within hours, the student became the target of an Internet-based witch hunt. Photos of a female student and her address on a local social networking site spread on the Web, but the university said the hunters identified the wrong female.
It's precisely things like this that make a lot of people in South Korea think online anonymity is not necessarily a good thing and leads to attacks from the comfort anonymity provides. This is other end of the spectrum in the issue of Internet freedom in Korea that has been highlighted by the UN Rapporteur's visit.
It's precisely things like this that make a lot of people in South Korea think online anonymity is not necessarily a good thing - Kushibo
Yeah, that's what motivated the South Korean government to install the real name system - care and concern over the poor dog poop girl. And here's another example of the government's good sense in cutting back on the freedom of expression. Man, the government is so caring and considerate.
Thanks Kusihibo for pointing that out. You should recommend youtube be completely banned in Korea like they did in Turkey. That will really protect the people.
The Central Scrutinizer wrote:
Yeah, that's what motivated the South Korean government to install the real name system - care and concern over the poor dog poop girl. And here's another example of the government's good sense in cutting back on the freedom of expression. Man, the government is so caring and considerate.
Mad reading skills there, TCS. I didn't mention the government at all, and I was only talking about why some people (a lot of people? many people? most people?) may not see things the same way the UN Rapporteur does.
Neither did I take a position, as one could read in the link I provided. But it's great that you can so centrally scrutinizer the true intent in other people's words.
Kushibo reminds me of the "fair witness" of Heinlein nature:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land#Fair_Witness
Don't read things into what he says beyond an orthodox interpretation of what he writes.
Puffin Watch, I'm not asking to be treated in such a way. I simply don't like my views being mischaracterized by people who for whatever reason try to twist them around.
I did not say anything about the government's motives, TCS's innuendo notwithstanding. In fact, I wrote: "As a blogger, I don't like feeling that there may be certain topics I cannot broach without offending someone who may try to come down on me," as the first component of my own ambiguity on this issue.
I found it interesting that the attempt by the Netizen Brigade to out the Bathroom Girl's identity could be brought up soon after the Rapporteur's speech without anybody really tying the two together. Forget what the government's true motives might be that The Central Scrutinizer seems to know: I'm referring to why many in the public may not get fully behind the Rapporteur's suggestions.
Does a guarantee of free speech necessarily come with a guarantee of anonymous speech? Note: That's a question, not a statement.
Does a guarantee of free speech necessarily come with a guarantee of anonymous speech? Note: That's a question, not a statement.
Freedoms are ultimately rights we accord ourselves collectively. So it depends how you phrase the guarantee. "Congress shall make no laws..." That kind of guarantee strikes me you can't constrain the manner in which people speak in the public square. If you want to say they can't wear a mask, then that seems a law constraining the exercise.
However if you legislate a right in say the Canadian fashion where its balanced by need to justify its purpose and judge it proportional to the common good, then, probably not.
TCS, yes this is on YouTube so the uploader's identity is potentially anonymous there, but it's all over the Korean portals, and the YouTube uploader probably simply got it from there.
kushibo, I'm in Pittsburgh now and can afford to spend about 20-25% of the time I used to on blogging about Korea-related issues. Since I don't live there anymore, am not immersed in it any longer, am increasingly less interested in going in-depth on topics I'm truly not passionate about, and am not as eager to spend a lot of time writing and researching said topics for free, I didn't spend a long time expanding on the post. I just did enough to be the only blogger covering it and the only blogger linking to the video. But that this comes so quickly after the UN envoy's visit ought to be a connection quite easily made by readers. cm brought up a good point on the Marmot's Hole thread about the report, that netizen outburts demonstrate why some people justify the real-name ID system: this is a country where, for a number of reasons, the internet is deadly, where cyberstalking and cyberviolence---are those even words?---are real threats, and where some people's first reaction upon hearing something bad about somebody is to find and divulge their personal information. There are objectionable things about South Korea's grip on the internet, but there are also objectionable things about South Korean users of it.
Well, I certainly didn't mean anything as a dig at you. I certainly wasn't trying to single out you or anyone for not tying the two cases together.
Anyway, at 25% capacity, your blog is still better than most.
speaking of 25% capacity - that's usually the amount of space taken up by bio-husk's comments on any given blog, except of course you nora where...
Clearly, you do not know what you think you know.
If you're going to make gratuitious ad hominem attacks on me, Nick, I hope you have more than nora on your infinite playlist.
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