Malicious Comments on 'Eta' That Led to a College Student's Death... Is There No Solution to Cyberbullying?

University Student Anonymous Community 'Eta' Malicious Comments Lead to Extreme Choice...
Youth Group "Companies and Universities Irresponsibly Neglect Malicious Comments"
Lee Soo-jung "Difficult to Regulate Personal Activities... Measures Needed to Support Victims"

/Photo by Everytime homepage capture

[Asia Economy reporters Seunggon Han and Juhee Kang] As a 20-something college student posted on the anonymous community 'Everytime (Eta)' and suffered from malicious comments before making an extreme choice, concerns about cyberbullying targeting specific individuals online are growing. There are calls for sanctions to prevent malicious comments and hate speech within the community.

Experts have diagnosed that it is not easy to regulate individual activities occurring within the platform. However, they emphasized the need to establish systems such as platforms that can help victims of malicious comments and support and welfare at the school level.

On the 8th of last month, a college student made an extreme choice after suffering from malicious comments on Eta. Mr. A expressed his mental distress and difficulties on Eta, but posts began to receive insulting and hateful malicious comments such as "Don't show it, just die quietly," and "You only say you want to die but can't."

After suffering from malicious comments for over two years, Mr. A ultimately took his own life at home. It is reported that in his will, he wrote a request to punish those who left malicious comments.

Eta is the largest anonymous community application used by college students in Korea, with about 4.55 million members including prospective students, current students, and alumni from 398 university campuses nationwide. After school verification, users can obtain various information such as class schedules, event management, lecture reviews, employment, and career, making it an essential app for most college students.

Also, various communities such as free boards and secret boards can be created for specific purposes, serving as a communication platform where students attending the same school can interact and share information.

Twenty-five youth and human rights organizations, including the Youth Participation Solidarity, held a press conference on the 2nd at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul, urging 'Everytime,' a university student online community, and universities to take responsibility for malicious comments. Photo by Yonhap News.

The problem is that Eta operates anonymously, allowing slurs, profanity, discrimination, hate speech, and obscene language to run rampant. In June, at a university in Seoul, nude verification photos were repeatedly posted and deleted within minutes on the anonymous board every night.

The seriousness of the malicious comment problem on Eta is also reflected in survey results. The Youth Participation Solidarity conducted a survey of 325 college students from May to June, confirming that 79.1% (248 respondents) felt discomfort due to posts or comments while using Eta.

The top reason for discomfort was offensive language and slander at 38.3%, followed by hate speech against minorities such as misogyny at 27.4%. Other reasons included obscene expressions, political bias, misandry, misinformation, impersonation, fraud, and Ilbe (a controversial online community).

Although the Eta app has a function to report inappropriate posts, all reports are processed by an automatic reporting system, and administrators do not directly intervene in specific posts. Since posts with accumulated reports can be automatically deleted regardless of content, it is pointed out that there is practically no direct sanction against malicious comments.

As a result, there are calls for direct regulation of malicious comments by the operators.

On the 2nd, 25 youth and human rights organizations including the Youth Participation Solidarity held a press conference at Gwanghwamun Square, stating, "There is currently no system to protect victims on Eta," and criticized, "'Automatic deletion system' exists but is only nominal and does not verify the facts of reports at all."

The group said, "The late Mr. A suffered from malicious comments and posts such as 'Just hurry up and die' left anonymously by members of the same university," and criticized, "Malicious comments and cyberbullying continued due to corporate irresponsibility and the university authorities' neglect, ultimately taking one person's life."

They added, "We must not leave anonymous cyberbullying to foster boards where users feel discomfort and fear," and urged measures to prevent hate speech.

Experts diagnosed that it is difficult to regulate individual activities occurring within the platform. However, they suggested the need to establish systems such as platforms and school-level support and welfare to help victims of malicious comments.

Professor Soojeong Lee of the Department of Criminal Psychology at Kyonggi University said, "Since the sexual exploitation video incident surfaced, crimes occurring within platforms have become a social issue," and explained, "Malicious comments due to anonymity would disappear if real-name systems were implemented, but it is difficult to accept due to conflicts with freedom of expression and other issues."

She continued, "It is not easy for the platform itself to impose sanctions or hold responsibility," and said, "Especially managing, monitoring, and supervising conversations and activities between individuals, which are not videos or images, is a difficult issue, and there is not yet a consensus to regulate such matters."

Professor Lee emphasized, "Support to help victims when such harm occurs must be prepared," and added, "Just as there are centers and organizations that provide legal support for victims of sexual crimes, schools and platforms should establish support systems to provide welfare for victims of malicious comments."