TW: Suicide, homophobia, sexism, bullying| Deaths ignite calls for harsher punishments for trolling

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

Cyberbullying has yet again cut the lives of an athlete and a Twitch streamer short last week.

Kim In-hyeok, 28, a professional volleyball player of the Daejeon Samsung Fire Bluefangs, was found dead at his home in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on Friday. Police concluded that there was no evidence of foul play related to Kim's death, Saturday.

Kim has vented about psychological damage from internet trolling via social media since last year. He wrote, "I thought I had better ignore decade-long misunderstandings around me, but I am tired of it. Please stop. The malicious comments have harassed me for years ― I can't stand it anymore."

He was referring to criticisms of his appearance, as well as rumors about his sexuality and claims that he appeared in pornography that have mushroomed on the internet.

Cho Jang-mi, 27, also known as BJ Jammi, a Twitch streamer at CJ's creator management agency Dia TV, was also found dead recently. She had been reeling from the trauma of internet trolling, according to a member of her family, Sunday.

Cho's bereaved family member who identified himself as her uncle wrote on her Twitch page, Saturday, "Jang-mi has suffered serious depression from malicious comments and rumors, which led her to suicide." The family will take legal action against the accusers responsible for the spread of rumors and misinformation about Cho, he wrote.

Cho entered the media platform as a game streaming creator in 2019 and had over 290,000 subscribers on Twitch and YouTube combined. She has been accused of being a "feminist" by internet users from male-dominant online communities such as DC Inside and FM Korea and suffered extreme emotional distress from cyberbullying.

In May 2020, Cho said her mother who helped her manage the comments section took her own life due to the bombardment of malicious comments and appealed to internet users to stop the vicious insults.

Their death saddened internet users. "The vicious comments killed people, please stop," one wrote. Another wrote, "All these haters are responsible for their deaths and deserve punishment."

According to the information network law, malicious commentators could be subject to up to three years in jail or fines up to 30 million won ($25,010) for defamation. In addition the law allows for up to seven years in jail and fines up to 50 million won for contempt, the act of defaming someone directly by saying something insulting to the person.

According to a police report obtained by lawmaker Han Byung-do of the Democratic Party of Korea last October, over 75,000 cases of cyber defamation have been reported over the past five years. Only 69.3 percent of reported cases led to arrests, among which only 0.06 percent, or 43 people, were detained.

Previously in 2019, the suicides of K-pop stars Sulli and Goo Hara linked to spiteful comments prompted public grief and put a spotlight on internet trolling. In response, Kakao has removed the comment section for entertainment news articles on its Korean portal Daum and Naver has been removing comments with abusive language.

Brigham Young University research published in the Journal of Social Media and Society last June found that "individuals with dark triad personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) combined with schadenfreude ― a German word meaning that one derives pleasure from another's misfortune ― were more likely to demonstrate trolling behaviors."

Source: Lee Hae-Rin for the Korean Times

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Comments

[nudrive.livejournal.com]

I heard about the twitch streamer but not the athlete :(

God this is horrific and I only see it getting worse, Idk how we as a whole society would even go about fixing this other than like going back to pre internet times but then newspapers would still exist so :|

[996677.livejournal.com]

this is absolutely horrifying. RIP.

we also have similar problems in my country but nothing of this magnitude. this shit needs harsh punishments but they need to fix that incredibly low number of arrests too, for anything to change. the trolls aren't seeing repercussions and enjoy causing pain so why would they think twice. super distressing and fucked up.

[bauci.livejournal.com]

Bullying ruins more lives than some idols smoking weed, I wish the justice system would catch up

[ginger-star.livejournal.com]

Man fuck all these pieces of shit who think this is acceptable to do to someone. Imagine going out of your way to go to someone's twitch stream who you dont like just to say horrible shit.

Also if I could never see the words "accused of being a feminist" ever again it will still be too soon.

[em-cavey.livejournal.com]

I’m well aware of the irony of saying this on an anonymous online comm but social media, especially anonymous social media, was a mistake. As a collective species humans are just too cruel and stupid to use it without causing unjustifiable harm. I really don’t like being nihilistic but I honestly think the point in time when social media became universal was a turning point that changed the trajectory of humanity markedly for the worse. I remember when people were saying social media was going to democratize discourse/platforming but democracy has rules (that aren’t driven by pure capitalistic interest and apathy well supposedly). This is anarchy and it leads to destruction bc at the end of the day humans are lizard-brain animals deep down and we are too primitive to keep ourselves functional as a society without concrete structures and consequences. Online spaces are lawless alternate societies now and bit by bit they’re overtaking the ‘real world’ and it’s terrifying. I don’t know what to do anymore other than just not engage with it as much as I can and put a mental asterisk on the people I know irl who are very “online.” It sucks but I just don’t feel like I can really trust them and their worldviews anymore bc who knows what they are reading and saying and what reality they exist in at this point.

On a related note, I am really REALLY sick of these cyber-wreckers. The piece of shit YouTuber who made the video that helped lead to incels brigading the streamer wrote an apology and basically admitted to being as inflammatory as possible about her for views. And now two innocent people are dead. I saw more celebrities are taking legal action against cyber-wreckers and I hope it sets some precedent for them to get scorched off the face of the earth bc that’s going to be the only way these assholes will learn.

[violoncelliste.livejournal.com]

it's not exactly healthy to wallow in misery but i can't help agreeing 100% with everything you said. even on communities like omona that claims to be mature and level headed, it's clear that there's an unspoken 'free pass' to be absolutely horrible to some people. humans cannot handle being able to say whatever we want on the internet, at all.

[cosmopudin.livejournal.com]

This is why I get so mad when idol bullies get so easily forgiven by the public. Korea has serious bullying issues and its so sad to see it affecting people this way

[xoxkenzxox.livejournal.com]

They should all be punished. How messed up is your own life that you have to LITERALLY ruin someone else's. And you know most of the ass wipes that post these anonymous comments don't have cajones enough to say anything in person if they ever met the person. they would probably be pathetic and ask for an autograph is able to speak at all. I wish nothing but bad of them since they go out of their way to hurt others.

[ursulavosyem.livejournal.com]

I struggle to express what I feel when I read articles like this, but ultimately it's sadness, mixed with anger, mixed with hopelessness. My heart goes out to the families and friends - and one family lost a mother AND daughter within 2 years for the same reason - who have suffered such a loss.

Cyberbullying needs to be tracked and punished more extensively, but I have no idea where to even begin with suggestions. I wish there was something I could do on my end, other than do my best to never sink that low.

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

I saw the news about Kim In-hyeok on Twitter. So sad for both of them. The trolls need consequences.

[chikage-chan.livejournal.com]

It is undeniable that SNS/internet communities allowed some people to find solace and support, but at the same time they amplified evil and stupidity so much that at this point I’m skeptical if the good outweighs the bad…

There is an urgent need for accountability for what is said and done online. Anonymity and the lack of enforcement of protective measures are allowing this to continuously happen. It’s an open outlet for narcissists and psychopaths, like the research says.

[myungung.livejournal.com]

rip to them, and I wish for their families to find closure. anonymous commenting has really dug its claws deep in shit for so many, and I have no solution to this except to expose them. but also it worries me that it might be a step into anarchy for governments.