"I never thought our people would be targeted"... Even the 'Heukbaek Chef' couldn't escape 'Cyberbullying'

20,000 Arrests Last Year
Up to 7 Years Imprisonment or Fine Up to 50 Million Won

"I never thought I would be subjected to cyberbullying by Koreans, but unfortunately, it is happening. Oh dear."

Netflix's "Black and White Chef" Cast Member Seon-gyeong Longest [Photo by Netflix]

This is the lament of Seon-gyeong Longest, a cast member of the Netflix original variety show 'Black and White Chef: Culinary Class War.' Since episode 6 of 'Black and White Chef' was released on the 24th of last month, she has been defenselessly exposed to a flood of malicious comments. Seon-gyeong Longest, a chef and YouTuber, is a Korean-American, and her YouTube channel Seon-gyeong Longest has 2.21 million subscribers.

She has won the American survival cooking competition 'Restaurant Express,' served as executive chef at a famous restaurant in Las Vegas, operated a vegan food truck in Hawaii, and published cookbooks, among other activities. Seon-gyeong Longest stated, "Since last Tuesday (September 24), I have been continuously receiving malicious comments. One video alone has 8,000 comments," and questioned, "Can this be justified as not being 'cyberbullying' (online harassment)?"

This kind of domestic cyber culture is not a new phenomenon. Over the past five years, the number of cyber defamation and insult cases reported to the police has approached 120,000.

The number of cases reported for cyber defamation and insult increased from 16,633 in 2019 to 19,388 in 2020, 28,988 in 2021, and 29,258 in 2022, before slightly decreasing to 24,252 last year. The number of arrests steadily rose from 11,632 in 2019 to 12,638 in 2020, 17,243 in 2021, 18,242 in 2022, and 20,390 last year. Over the past five years, this totals 80,145 cases.

There are also people who make a living by producing false or defamatory content. These so-called 'cyber wreckers' intentionally create and distribute false information or defamatory content for profit. They sometimes extort money from victims by threatening to "expose" them. Recently, representatives include Foot-and-Mouth Disease, Fabrication Detector, and Karakula, who demanded money from mukbang YouTuber Tzuyang.

Cyber defamation is referred to as 'defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act' to distinguish it from defamation under criminal law. The Information and Communications Network Act punishes those who damage a person's reputation by spreading false information with up to seven years in prison or a fine of up to 50 million won, which is a harsher penalty than general defamation. This is because its impact is incomparably stronger than that of general defamation.