Movie 'Socialphobia', Is SNS Witch Hunt Truly Justice? [Joohee Kang's Video Prism]

'Sosyeolpobia' Depicts Malicious Comments and Witch Hunts in SNS Culture
The Harmful Effects of 'Distorted Sense of Justice' Toward Others

Still image from the movie 'Socialphobia'.
Photo by Naver Movies

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Joo-hee] [Editor's Note] How do you remember that scene? Have you ever suddenly recalled a scene from a movie? This is likely because films are closely connected to our lives. Movies offer another perspective on reality. We present various viewpoints on reality by extracting a single scene from a film. Please note that spoilers may occur during the description of scenes.

The protagonists Ji-woong and Yong-min in the movie Socialphobia are civil service exam candidates studying in Noryangjin, Seoul, aiming to become police officers. One day, news breaks about a soldier's desertion and his extreme choice, and an online user with the ID 'Rena' leaves harsh malicious comments about this soldier, sparking outrage among netizens.

The famous BJ (Broadcast Jockey) 'Yangge' gathers a 'hyeonpi' expedition team (meaning the parties involved in an online dispute meet offline to fight) to punish Rena, saying, "We must get an apology for justice," and Ji-woong and Yong-min join the group. However, on the day of the hyeonpi, when they arrive at the location, Rena is already found dead by hanging.

Rena's death is broadcast live on BJ Yangge's stream and quickly spreads. The hyeonpi group immediately faces accusations and criticism as the perpetrators who killed Rena. Their personal information is even exposed online, and they claim that Rena's actions before her death indicate she was not someone who would make an extreme choice, raising suspicions of murder.

The more severe the criticism against them becomes, the more they become obsessed with the suspicion that there is another culprit who killed Rena. Eventually, the hyeonpi group creates an internet cafe to uncover the truth behind Rena's death and begins a full-scale search for the culprit.

Socialphobia depicts the harmful effects and damage caused by malicious comments, witch hunts, and doxxing on social networking services (SNS) like Twitter and Facebook, which everyone uses nowadays. The culture of easily slandering and judging others anonymously on the internet extends beyond online spaces, affecting reality and driving individuals to death.

Through SNS, people can freely express their opinions, share them, and create public discourse, but uncontrolled speech often leads to indiscriminate criticism of others, turning into violence.

Still image from the movie 'Socialphobia'./Photo by Naver Movies

The events in Socialphobia are not unfamiliar. The harms caused by malicious comments, witch hunts, spreading false information, and digital crimes due to SNS anonymity appear in various forms in today's life, where the internet occupies most of daily life.

In particular, the controversy over the 'Digital Prison,' which posted the identities of perpetrators of serious crimes including the 'Nth Room' case that sparked national outrage last year, resembles the reality depicted in the film, as ordinary people engage in 'private punishment' against others.

The Digital Prison was created with the public interest purpose of socially judging criminals and received much support for a time. The public's support was rooted in distrust of the judicial system, which had imposed lenient punishments on criminals.

The operator of the Digital Prison stated, "Feeling limited by the lenient punishments for serious criminals in South Korea, I established this site to directly expose their personal information and have them socially judged." In the film, the hyeonpi group also said they must punish Rena 'for justice.'

However, the indiscriminate exposure of personal information on the Digital Prison soon caused serious problems. A university professor unrelated to any crime was falsely labeled a 'sexual predator' after his personal information was posted on the Digital Prison. A university student whose identity was exposed pleaded innocence but eventually took extreme measures.

As such cases of harm repeated, the Digital Prison was shut down in October last year, and its operator was arrested on charges of unauthorized posting of others' personal information.

Regarding this, Professor Lee Soo-jung of the Department of Criminal Psychology at Kyonggi University said on a radio show, "I question what public authority (the Digital Prison) has to continuously leak personal information and who gave them the social right to bury others. Those involved were likely intoxicated with vanity. Clearly, this is illegal and a human rights violation that cannot be ignored."

The film exposes the problematic cycle of violence online by portraying those who do not hesitate to carry out 'private punishment' against others under a distorted sense of justice.

Still image from the movie 'Socialphobia'.
Photo by Naver Movies

The hyeonpi group discovers that Yong-min had previously fought with Rena on SNS and led the witch hunt out of revenge. Yong-min, who initially led the search for Rena's killer, is instead accused of being the culprit.

The internet cafe created to uncover the truth about Rena's death soon turns into a site that condemns Yong-min as a murderer and aims to punish him. Yong-min becomes the next target of the witch hunt.

Unable to endure the criticism against him, Yong-min continues the search for the culprit and tracks down the person who hacked Rena's laptop webcam. He then watches footage recorded just before Rena's extreme choice.

The video shows Rena terrified and frightened before the hyeonpi group barged into her house. The footage ends abruptly without any evidence to confirm murder, showing only Rena's restless state.

The film's ending is not much different from its beginning. The fact that Rena died remains unchanged, and the hyeonpi group that raised suspicions of murder fails to find the culprit. The events surrounding Rena's death, which once heated the internet, gradually fade from people's memories without any truth revealed.

At the film's conclusion, the audience is left wondering what the true identity of the culprit the hyeonpi group so desperately sought is.

Was Rena really killed by someone? Perhaps they were hiding behind the pretense of justice, seeking an excuse to avoid responsibility for the tragedy caused by their thoughtless actions.

The culprit they seek may never have existed. The more they obsess over finding the culprit, the more meaningless and hollow the act feels. The film's final line, "There are still people who believe Rena's death was murder," thus feels all the more bitter.