Made 125 Million Won in One Month of Martial Law... "Need to Strengthen Tax Investigation on Far-Right YouTubers"

Earnings More Than Doubled After December 3 Martial Law Declaration
"Swift and Strong Inspections by the National Tax Service Needed"

A significant number of far-right and conservative YouTubers saw a sharp increase in their earnings from donations and other sources following the December 3 emergency martial law declaration. As a result, calls have been made for the National Tax Service to strengthen tax investigations.

On the 19th, Jeong Il-young, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, released an analysis based on data from the global YouTube channel ranking platform ‘Playboard’.

Jeong analyzed the top seven far-right and conservative YouTubers by Super Chat income and found that six of these channels saw their average Super Chat earnings in December last year increase by 2.1 times compared to the previous month. Super Chat is a feature that allows viewers to financially support YouTubers through the chat window during live broadcasts.

Conservative group holding an anti-impeachment rally Photo by Yonhap News

According to the lawmaker’s office, YouTuber A, who has the largest subscriber base of 1.62 million among far-right conservative YouTubers, earned 125 million KRW from Super Chats in December last year. This was an increase of 66.21 million KRW (2.1 times) from 59.08 million KRW in the previous month. YouTuber B’s income increased 2.3 times (20.34 million KRW → 46.84 million KRW). YouTubers C and D also saw their earnings grow by 2.1 times each.

YouTuber E’s income rose from 8.68 million KRW in November to 21.87 million KRW in December, marking a 2.5-fold increase?the largest growth among the Super Chat incomes.

Additionally, all seven channels were confirmed to receive donations separately through bank accounts apart from their Super Chat earnings. Notably, five of these channels collected donations through personal bank accounts. The amounts of these donations were not disclosed.

Furthermore, YouTuber F, who has 1.46 million subscribers, displayed their personal bank account number in video subtitles and other places to receive donation income. YouTuber G, with over 800,000 subscribers, is known to have posted a third party’s personal bank account rather than their own to collect donations.

Jeong emphasized, “Far-right and conservative YouTubers are generating enormous profits through misinformation and indiscriminate hate speech,” adding, “It is necessary for the National Tax Service to conduct swift and strong inspections to ensure that tax reporting and taxation on their various incomes are transparent and fair.”