Rumors run rife on YouTube but gossip video creators face few repercussions

A mere whiff of a gossip is dropped on social media and nowadays it doesn't make headlines in traditional news media outlets. Rather, it's immediately picked up by YouTubers, dubbed as "cyber wreckers" in Korea. The terminology refers to YouTubers..

Jo Jang-mi, an internet personality known for gaming and mukbang, was reported to have taken her own life on Feb. 6. due to cyber bullying. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

A mere whiff of a gossip is dropped on social media and nowadays it doesn’t make headlines in traditional news media outlets. Rather, it’s immediately picked up by YouTubers, dubbed as “cyber wreckers” in Korea.

The terminology refers to YouTubers who immediately gather information about the latest trending talk-of-the-town issue, frequently adding their own opinions or critiques in a bid to garner their number of streams and subscribers.

Sometimes, the issues are hardly worth covering, but such YouTubers upload the most provocative or controversial image or words to get viewers to click on their content.

[BYUN JU-YEON]

The majority of their sources could hardly be called credible. Instead, they rely on scraps of news articles or anonymous posts uploaded on online communities to ground their facts and to instigate further rumors, controversy, and backlash — all in a bid to increase their views, gain subscribers and to ultimately make a profit.

Before, the subjects of such content were politicians and celebrities already in the public eye — the data, rumors and controversies surrounding them were endless, hence, it was easier to proliferate and capture people's attention.

Last year when a slew of K-pop idols and actors were accused of bullying their classmates during their school days, the wreckers almost immediately “organized” what was happening, even drawing references from the celebrities’ past appearances on variety shows to “back up” their opinions.

A YouTube channel of a cyber wrecker who uploads gossip and rumors related to celebrities [SCREEN CAPTURE]

While these wreckers are rarely considered reliable sources, some celebrities are fighting back.

“I will sue [...] Going after my friends and family is crossing the line.”

V of BTS put his foot down when a cyber wrecker spread false rumors such as that V was dating a daughter of a chaebol company or that he was “drunk and causing havoc” during a streaming session on a fan community platform Weverse.

Although the YouTuber who posted these allegations was criticized for its actions, ironically, the number of views on the video surged. The YouTuber began to relentlessly upload videos related to other members of BTS and rumors about who they were romantically involved with.

According to NoxInfluencer, a statistics and analytics website for YouTubers, the channel is presumed to earn a steady monthly profit of between 27.7 million won ($23,100) and 48.3 million won.

The YouTuber also uploaded a video pointing out the fake designer products that beauty YouTuber Song Ji-ah, also known as FreeZia, wore in her own social media posts and on Netflix dating reality show “Single’s Inferno.” The number of subscribers to the wrecker's channel, which was around 5,000 in November 2021, has grown to over 40,000 over the course of four months.

Some of these wreckers even promote their channel by claiming they have been sued by a celebrity.

The sole act of reporting gossip seems to be harmless, but such videos are always followed by more absurd rumors, malicious comments and even hate speech.

Earlier this month, two young people were reported to have committed suicide, unable to withstand cyber bullying by the wreckers and the hate comments being relentlessly aimed at them.

A photograph of the late Kim In-hyeok, left, and entertainer Hong Suk-chun from Hong's Instagram [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Twenty-six-year-old Daejeon Samsung Bluefangs player Kim In-hyeok was found dead at his residence on Feb. 4. He was often targeted by the wreckers mainly regarding his physical appearance and sexuality. Last August, Kim wrote in an Instagram post that it was difficult to “withstand malicious comments anymore after enduring them for a decade.”

Twenty-seven-year-old Jo Jang-mi, an internet personality known for gaming and mukbang, or eating shows, was found dead on Feb. 6. Jo, who is better known as BJ Jammi, was suffering from depression following an incident in 2019 in which she became the subject of online attacks. BJ is short for “broadcasting jockey,” a term used in Korea to refer to a person that films themselves talking, eating, or playing games on live broadcasting websites such as YouTube or Twitch. Jo had some 160,000 subscribers on Twitch and 130,000 subscribers on YouTube.

YouTuber PPKKa currently posses over 1.21 million subscribers and has been primarily accused by the public to be main perpetrator behind late Jo's death. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

During a broadcast in 2019, Jo made a hand gesture that some viewers interpreted as a signal of man-hating feminism. Cyber wreckers immediately picked up on the issue and labeled her as "megal," which derives from the word Megalia, one of Korea’s largest radical feminist online communities which shut down in 2017.

During a Twitch broadcast in May 2020, Jo said that she was on medication for her depression caused by the hate comments. She also revealed that her mother had taken her own life due to the comments.

A Blue House petition was filed on Feb. 7 to punish perpetrators, such as YouTuber PPKKa and those who wrote comments about Jo Jang-mi, was signed by more than 216,000 people. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

A Blue House petition was filed on Feb. 7 to “strongly punish the perpetrators on YouTube” and those who witch-hunted Jo to the end of her life. The petition was signed by more than 216,000 people as of Wednesday.

“They [the cyber wreckers] do not think of their actions as a crime,” said psychology Professor Lim Myung-ho from Dankook University. “They don’t think of their actions as a form of violence nor are they aware of how much pain [they cause] the victims.”

“As to malicious comments and hate speech hurled [at the victims], it’s a herd mentality in which not only one but a group of perpetrators is formed to align with each other. In order to prove that they were ‘right,’ they attack others and believe that’s how they receive attention, seek acceptance and feel superior. They believe they have a proper reason or cause to attack.”

Professor Hong Sung-cheol from the department of Media and Visual Arts at Kyonggi University contends that the mass consumption of content from cyber wreckers is due to the fact that they provide information that traditional media does not.

“[This phenomenon] is related to voyeurism,” Hong said. “People want to know stories about others but not the kind provided by traditional media. There is nothing new about the information that these wreckers share in their content. They’re mainly collages of internet articles already out on the net, just with their own opinions about the matter at hand.

“The traditional media is focused on politics and the economy, but what people want to really know lies somewhere else — gossip,” Hong continued. “In the past, magazines or tabloid newspapers used to fill that role, but YouTube makes it so much easier to create such content [...] In a sense, the wreckers believe that they are filling in the role that the media hasn’t been able to.”

After the deaths of Kim and Jo, the public’s attention has been turned toward how can these wreckers be punished and calls for social media platforms such as YouTube to take stronger stances evaluating and censoring the content YouTubers upload.

As of now, the strongest form of criminal punishment the wreckers can face is being found guilty of defamation under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, where the person can be punished by imprisonment for up to five years or by a maximum fine of 50 million won.

According to lawyer Lee Seung-ki of the Law Office Lee and Law Partners, the current legal system makes it difficult to criminally punish the wreckers as there needs to be “a clear indication of malice” regarding the information — whether it’s true or false — the person is spreading. Especially if the victim is a public figure, it becomes more difficult to prove that misinformation was spread in ill will.

A cyber wrecker who is active on a YouTube channel called PPKKa has been blamed in part for Jo’s death. However, it is unlikely that any criminal charges will be taken against the YouTuber.

“In the case of PPKKa, although it’s true that the YouTuber uploaded a video with accusations against her [Jo], if it’s also true that the victim, the famous BJ did, in fact, evidently say or took action to promote man-hate, it becomes a public matter. Thus, it is highly probable that criticizing or publicizing [her actions] won't be deemed as spiteful. Moreover, not only [PPKKa] but other YouTubers also uploaded videos regarding the victim, and since people uploaded explicit comments on a variety of online communities under anonymity, it would be difficult to place responsibility solely upon the YouTuber.”

Professor Shim Young-seob of the department of media video promotion at Kyung Hee Cyber University, who is also a former member of the Korea Communications Standards Commission, points out the current legislative system has to be changed to claim social responsibility over the service providers and to ultimately prevent such incidents from happening.

“Actions that local administrative organizations take can only do much — and only after the damage happens [regarding the punishments the wreckers should face],” Shim said. “The important matter here is to be able to swiftly take action when the possibility [for damage] arises. To be able to do that, there needs to be [a set of laws] to have a just cause to impose enforcement upon the providers.

“Even if the headquarters of a service provider is overseas, it should take liability within the local system where it makes profits. But we have no existing laws for that.

“There needs to be a set of laws so that the providers can take social responsibility over their content, such as what kind of incentives they will receive for abiding [by the laws] and what penalties they will face if they don’t. Without instituting that, there is no proper cause to place fault upon the platform after a problem arises. All three systems need to work in consensus to resolve this issue: When providers preemptively take measures, there needs to be a clear set of incentives and penalties, and policies to properly punish the perpetrators. As of right now, there isn’t even a definition regarding one-person media [...] How can we regulate their actions or force them to take responsibility over their content when they don’t even exist within the current legal system?”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]