Phone Numbers Shared on Online Communities
Democratic Labor Union Also Opens Automatic Text Message Sending Link
As the People Power Party has set its official stance to oppose the impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol, some citizens are reportedly sending "text message bombs" urging People Power Party lawmakers to support the impeachment.
On the 5th, a post titled "People Power Party Lawmakers' Phone Numbers" was uploaded on an online community. The post listed about 30 mobile phone numbers without real names. It is unknown whether these numbers actually belong to People Power Party lawmakers. The author of the post said, "Everyone, please send a text message once," and also shared five example text messages supporting the impeachment.
Another community posted a thread titled "Funny Text Messages Sent to People Power Party Lawmakers." In this post, community users shared photos as proof that they sent messages urging support for the impeachment. Among these photos were messages sending chicken gift coupons with the note "Eat this and push for impeachment," or messages claiming to be from influencers saying, "If you agree to the impeachment, I will promote you on Instagram."
'Yoon Seok-yeol Impeachment Urging Text Action' launched by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. Yonhap News
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) opened a link for sending text messages urging People Power Party lawmakers who oppose President Yoon's impeachment to support it. When accessing the link, a window automatically opens to send text messages to the lawmakers' mobile phones. As a result, People Power Party lawmakers are literally being bombarded with "text message bombs." Most of the received messages reportedly urge them to join the impeachment of President Yoon.
A first-term lawmaker told Yonhap News Agency, "I received 5,400 text messages during the one-hour lunch break," and appealed, "With the flood of messages, phone calls are also difficult to make." Another second-term lawmaker said, "I received about 8,000 messages today and blocked the senders," adding, "Most of the messages say things like 'If you don't impeach the president, we will erase you from South Korea.'"
On the same day, Lee Jun-seok, a lawmaker from the Reform New Party, posted on his Facebook starting with "Suddenly, text message bombs are flying in." He stated, "All members of the Reform New Party have already agreed to propose the impeachment of Yoon Suk-yeol and stamped it this afternoon, so it is pathetic to see who incited false information." He added, "Just because someone says strange things on YouTube doesn't mean it's the truth. What is the point of sending photos of kitchen knives and abusive language because you were fooled by such false information?"
Meanwhile, the People Power Party announced through a press release, "Currently, illegal acts are occurring where mobile phone numbers of lawmakers, which are personal information, are being used without permission to send organized and collective text messages." They added, "We will take strong legal action against illegal behaviors such as personal information leakage and obstruction of work." Additionally, the Korea Communications Standards Commission decided to conduct a prompt review at 5 p.m. on the same day regarding the site opened by the KCTU to discuss whether to block it.
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