Korea's Online Aggression a Taste of the Future?

DerGeist writes "Imagine your life ruined by an organized mob that convicts with scant, unreliable evidence. Fueled only by hearsay and rumors, an invisible horde of your fellow citizens begins bombarding your snailbox, email, phone, work, school and family with threats, insults and general harassment. You are forced to drop out of school and quit your job as a result of constant attacks. You are shunned and ridiculed in public as anywhere you go, you are instantly recognized. Although it may seem to be just a second-rate Hollywood nightmare scenario reminiscent of "The Net," this sort of "organized mob" justice is being dealt out freely in South Korea where net usage is booming. So freely, in fact, that almost 1 in 10 of 13-65 year-olds has felt its sting. Could this trend hit the U.S.? Will policing net behavior eventually become necessary?"

Comments

Gangstalking

[dustinl4m3]

Reminds me oddly of this:

http://www.gangstalking.ca/

Also, watch the video:

http://www.eharassment.ca/videos.htm

Re:OK, umm...

[kwerle]

That's because it's the same old inflammatory BS that has become standard fare on /.

From TFA: one guy has his life ruined from net->reality hostility.

Also from TFA: "A poll taken in November showed that nearly one of 10 South Koreans from 13 to 65 said they had experienced cyberviolence."

Whatever the hell that is.

Thanks, editors.

Let me do my share: the editors are jackasses. There now they have all suffered cyberviolence, too. Just like the single dude in this article.

Could we start tagging articles as flamebait? Please?

Old News

[Pike]

I couldn't help thinking that Poe (others too, probably) already thought of this 150 years ago, specifically in Some Words With a Mummy , written in 1850.

"We then spoke of the great beauty and importance of Democracy, and were at much trouble in impressing the Count [the mummy] with a due sense of the advantages we enjoyed in living where there was suffrage ad libitum, and no king.

"He listened with marked interest, and in fact seemed not a little amused. When we had done, he said that, a great while ago, there had occurred something of a very similar sort. Thirteen Egyptian provinces determined all at once to be free, and to set a magnificent example to the rest of mankind. They assembled their wise men, and concocted the most ingenious constitution it is possible to conceive. For a while they managed remarkably well; only their habit of bragging was prodigious. The thing ended, however, in the consolidation of the thirteen states, with some fifteen or twenty others, in the most odious and insupportable despotism that was ever heard of upon the face of the Earth.

"I asked what was the name of the usurping tyrant.

"As well as the Count could recollect, it was Mob."

Barn door. Horses. Futility.

[Valdrax]

Ever hear of defamation or libel?

I assume that we're ignoring the fact that it's usually nigh-impossible to find the people who started the whole rumor mill going or that it's impossible to sue EVERYBODY involved in mob harrassment or that you may have actually done what you're accused of like the woman who was infamously harrassed for letting her dog poop in a subway car and refused to clean it up, etc.?

Well, the main problem is that suing people can take years and is basically closing the barn door after the horses have run free. It in no way stops the harrassment, which will die out on its own long before then and leave smoldering distrust and disdain in people's minds towards you. Suing is far less effective than preventing it from happening in the first place. All suing is is vengeance, and vengeance is always a thing for after the damage has been done.

Having Lived In Korea

[JPFitting]

I can say that internet usuage is bred into just about everyone over there. When on the subways/trains nearly everyone is either playing a game, texting, or e-mailing over their uber-phone. When they are not doing that they are taking pictures of themselves to send to their friends and/or use for some sort of web use. I love Korea and am planning upon returning soon, but I can understand why the medium is the internet over there for these type of situations. Heck, you could get 100mbs down and 20mbs up VDSL connection for approximately 35/month.

Re:Cranky Koreans!

[dochood1966]

Gosh, you know, I love the Korean people to death! My wife's family and I get along great. They think the world of me, and I love them.

But, I tell you what. They just have a whole different way of thinking than we do. They don't do anything half way, whether working, spoiling you to death (our family and friends are always stuffing me full of yummy food!), playing, or getting revenge! I'm not sure what the Korean word for "moderation" is, or whether they even have one! When they are nice, they are the nicest people in the whole world. But don't tick them off!

Re:Don't Mess with Korean Superstars

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

I don't think this has anything to do with the fact that they "teched-up" rapidly before online etiquette was formed. This has more to do with emotion-driven Korean culture.

I don't have a link, but maybe 2 months ago I read about a similar story in China where an online mob seriously harassed a married woman and a man she was supposedly having an affair with before it became known that the woman's estranged husband made up everything just to get back at her and none of it was true. I'd say it's really an Asian thing as opposed to a Korean thing.