Due to Heavy Traffic on the Free Bulletin Board, Petitions Are Being Sent by Fax
Constitutional Court Receives Hundreds of Petitions by Fax
As the ruling on President Yoon Seok-yeol's impeachment trial approaches, both the pro- and anti-impeachment camps are launching an all-out effort by sending a 'fax bomb' to the Constitutional Court.
According to a Yonhap News report on the 15th, the Constitutional Court has received about 300 petitions related to President Yoon's impeachment trial by fax since the 13th. This is a sharp increase compared to the usual five faxes received per day by the court.
On the 11th, as the impeachment trial verdict for President Yoon Seok-yeol approaches, police security is being strengthened around the Constitutional Court in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung
The reason faxes have become a battleground for both sides appears to be that using the Constitutional Court's website free bulletin board has become more difficult than before. At one point, the free bulletin board of the Constitutional Court saw up to 10,000 posts per hour, causing access to crash due to a surge in visitors. Moreover, suspicions arose that macro programs (automated input repetition programs) were being used, prompting the court to strengthen its identity verification process. Originally, users could post unlimited messages after one identity verification, but the procedure was changed to require identity verification each time a post is made. Because of this, instead of posting on the website, it seems that pressure on the court is being maintained by sending faxes.
On online communities and social networking services (SNS), posts explaining how to send faxes to the Constitutional Court using mobile phone applications (apps) are appearing one after another.
On 'Jaemyeongine Maeul,' a fan cafe for Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, since the 11th, there have been consecutive certification posts such as "Let's all send faxes to the Constitutional Court," "The ruling date must be announced tomorrow. I sent a fax to the court," "I am sending faxes frequently now," and "The impeachment ruling should be made quickly so the presidential election can be moved up."
One poster wrote, "Sending faxes is much easier than posting on the Constitutional Court's free bulletin board, so I think I can send hundreds of them."
In response, on 'DC Inside,' an online community gathering supporters of President Yoon, in the 'US Politics Gallery,' a post sharing the Constitutional Court's fax number appeared with the message, "The leftists have started a fax attack on the court." Comments such as "We should do the same. Now is not the time to hesitate," and "Let's send 'Impeachment dismissed'" were added.
The Constitutional Court stated, "So far, we consider these as simple petitions," and added, "If it reaches a level that interferes with our work, we plan to take separate measures."
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