[Bbang Gubneun Tajagi] If Comment Violence Goes Too Far... "You Are Also an Accomplice"

Indifference and Misunderstanding, Enemies That Ruin the Public Sphere
We Must Actively Oppose Hate and Hate Speech

"Yeonjin, I am really excited right now."

This is a famous line from the Netflix drama The Glory, which gained popularity not only in Korea but worldwide. It resonated with many people and sparked outrage by addressing the issue of school violence. Each related article and community post received hundreds of comments.

Among them, one comment stood out. It was a personal attack criticizing the appearance of one of the cast members, yet it gained sympathy from many and ranked high in visibility. This reflects the contradictory nature of our society, which gets angry about school violence but commits another form of violence through comments.

The book We Are All Accomplices to Comment Violence diagnoses the hate culture hidden behind malicious comments. The author defines malicious comments as "social murder" because extreme and excessive emotions expand into a collective frenzy with tremendous explosive power. At this point, the target is subjected to a witch hunt-like beating to death.

The frightening aspect of malicious comments is that while the victim is clear, the perpetrator is ambiguous. Sometimes it is a small group, and other times it seems like the entire society is ganging up on a specific target. The victim cannot even dream of desperate revenge like Moon Dong-eun, the protagonist in The Glory.

This is also something often experienced while writing articles. In the past, an article quoting a politician’s statement received a "best comment" that insulted the journalist and his family. A group opposing the politician marked the article as a "coordinate" and flooded the comments. They hurled unbearable insults simply because the article quoted a politician they did not support, without any special reason.

The greatest feeling when facing such comments is helplessness. Due to the structure of malicious comments, there is no way to refute them. Another frightening aspect is that those who uncritically agree with such comments are not terrible monsters. Most of them are decent members of society whom we can meet normally around us.

The author analyzes that we are all ultimately accomplices to comment violence. The media that churn out clickbait articles, politicians who only care about public opinion trends related to these, and intellectuals who have the duty to maintain the health of the public discourse are active bystanders. People who uncritically click and consume clickbait articles, and all of us who frown at the violence in comment sections but just fold our arms are passive bystanders and accomplices to comment violence, the author says.

To rebuild the devastated public discourse, the author encourages actively confronting hate and hateful expressions. In front of malicious comments with thousands of "likes," people tend to think their opposing views are minority opinions. However, on platforms like Naver, only 3 out of 1,000 users write comments on news articles. Ultimately, if you do not express your opinion, it will become a true minority opinion.

The author emphasizes that indifference and misunderstanding toward comment sections are the worst enemies that destroy public discourse. Now is the time for all of us to act. If we close our eyes when facing comment violence, we too become accomplices to the violence.

We Are All Accomplices to Comment Violence | Written by Jeong Ji-hye | Gaemagowon | 272 pages | 17,000 KRW