Possible Freedom of Speech Violation?
I read some news a few hours ago that really surprised me. An anonymous internet blogger in Korea who went by the online handle Minerva – well actually 미네르바 – was arrested yesterday for spreading false facts. Yes, that’s right, false facts. The Korean term used in the article, “허위사실 유포,” means spreading false information.
Minerva, a popular poster at Daum’s Agora, had recently become famous on the Internet for predicting the collapse of Lehman Brothers bank and the steady fall of the won against the dollar. The Economist ran a story about him last month. His identity was a mystery, his predictions were correct, and he apparently earned the nickname ”Internet Economic President.” The Hankyoreh summarizes his rise to fame pretty succinctly:
Minerva quickly became famous for his sharp comments on the government’s ill-fated economic policies and the media’s incorrect news reports by using layman’s terms and statistics to make his predictions. His Web posts got tens of thousands of hits and were copied to countless Internet bulletin boards and blogs. Internet users often described Minerva’s posts as an essential reference for discussing economic issues. An Internet community site at Daum is now selling a book that is a compilation of his writings.
This article in Korean summarizes why he was arrested. A bilingual commenter at The Marmot’s Hole was kind enough to summarize it in English:
Basic summary: Minerva accused government of ordering the 7 major financial institutions to stop buying dollars, which caused major disruption in market; govt responded within 1 hr denying the accusation; minerva then responded immediately saying government is lying, why would they lie so brazenly when anybody can check with a couple phone calls. Few hrs later it became clear minerva was the one lying; minvera apologizes profusely and deletes his comments on daum agora.
This comes as a surprise to me and many Korean people as well, because it seems like a ridiculous overreaction from a democratic government, harking back to the days when Korea was a military dictatorship. Also, the Internet seems to be the number one venue for spreading misinformation, and while it is mildly annoying and requires some critical thinking skills to cope with, I didn’t know it was illegal in this country.
