On Thursday dark , South Korean prexy Park Geun - Hye was formally ousted from her office after a particular Constitutional Court conclusion upheld her impeachment . For the bulk of Koreans , it ’s the end of a gruelling three - calendar month trial run and a longer home scandal . But during the biggest crisis in South Korea ’s young majority rule , the route to impeachment was fill with simulated information disperse through the democratic messaging app KakaoTalk , internet site and paper - like pamphlet in which fictional western expert key out after anime characters show made - up conspiracies and “ Donald Trump ” abide Park Geun - Hye .
Before and during the test , a flood of bogus news articles dominated and muddled the public discourse about the already cabal - laden outrage surrounding the conservative former President Park and her Rasputin - corresponding confidant Choi Soon - sil . Revelations overChoi ’s influence over Park , from edit insurance policy speeches to picking her casual wardrobe , and her use of said influence to funnel money from corporation to herself led to monumental street demonstrations in Seoul , and in December , Park ’s impeachment by the National Assembly . Through this scandal , a web of degeneracy was exposed and led to the indictment ofhead of Samsung , Lee Jae - Yong , for grease one’s palms Choi .
Amid an atmosphere of disbelief and outrage at the governing , fake news program articles help bait a minuscule but outspoken base of Park supporters . From online , they grew large enough to retain counter - protests of their own . partake in on pro - Park forums , Facebook group and KakaoTalk chatrooms , the clause discredit the anti - Park politicians and the prosecuting attorney involved in the trial as commie andsexual harasser , respectively .
Fake news so far back mostly Park and other conservative causes . Se - Woong Koo , the founder of the English - language on-line magazineKorea Expose , think many conservative cluster to fake tidings after the scandal broke and the traditional media outlets — the bulk of which are cautious — abandon their support of Park .
“ After Choi Soon - sil [ malicious gossip ] , everybody was writing critically about the chairwoman which made traditional conservative readers feel alienated , ” Koo recount Gizmodo .
Among the elderly , conservative grouping in South Korea , KakaoTalk reign queen of the smartphone . KakaoTalk is omnipresent in South Korea and most people over 60 years of age—76 per centum of whom owns a smartphone , according a Gallup sketch — learned to use the message app with relative relaxation .
A 29 - yr - sometime moderator of a popular website phone Daily Padak — which , after public pressure , now foreground on their homepage that they are a faux news program site where the great unwashed can make up stories“to come-on [ their ] friend in”—told the centrist paper Hankook Ilbothat 60 percent of Daily Padak ’s traffic comes from Kakaotalk , dual than the dealings from Facebook and Twitter combined .
Despite the deluge of bogus newsworthiness , the overarching narrative is quite simple . Every fake news story seems to focus on how the entire outrage and its subsequent protests are a leftist conspiracy to take down Park ’s conservative regimen . Many of the fake news stories accrue under three common form :
A fictitious westerly media mercantile establishment , political expert or politico speak out against Park ’s impeachment
Made - up data show how the pro - Park camarilla is grow , or surpassed , the anti - Park camarilla
So - called evidence link the Choi Soon - sil scandal and anti - Park protests to North Korea
The first category is where bastard news creators arguably engender the most creative . One article says a British professor discover Artoria Pendragondiscovered phantasma organizationscoordinated the impeachment protestation ; Pendragon , however , is acharacter from the Nipponese gum anime Fate / delay night . Another claimed a Stanford professor call Simon Littner ( surname also borrowed from a character reference in another anime called Gurren Lagann ) wrote that the impeachment was part of ashadowy “ tycoon game”played by China and North Korea .
One of the most popular hoi polloi “ quote ” in fake word stories was not a fabricated expert but the substantial President of the United States . Donald Trumpsupposedly spoke against Park ’s impeachment on December 19th , telling CNN that he was interested that Park ’s impeachment will feign the global thriftiness in broken English . “ I am very sorry that Park Geun - hye impeached . Korea is America ’s most influential spouse , ” said “ Trump ” in a now - deleted fake word article , as reported by the unexpended - wing television web JTBC in one of their many special news segment on fake news show . This fake news program article was apportion at least 1,500 time on Facebook and Twitter , accord to JTBC .
Made - up poll number also prove to be a popular bogus news format as well . One March 5 poll shared in Park ’s pop fan baseball club assembly called Park - Sa - Mo find only31 pct supported Park ’s impeachment while 47 percentage opposed . It was conduct a non - real group called NK Financial Research . In reality , aGallup opinion poll from March 3found that 77 percent supported impeachment and 18 pct contradict it . Another caller calledRealmeterpolled near - identical figures ( 77 percent financial support impeachment , 20 percent against ) in its final pre - verdict poll on Thursday .
But the most popular and nefarious conformation of fake news has been the North Korea joining . Tapping into a longtime fear of communism stem from the Korean War , fake news clause continually essay to connect pane between endeavour to impeach Park and North Korea . Rumors likeNorth Korean agents flooding Seoul during the protestsor fake material like a missive written bythe opposition party drawing card to Kim Jong - Illabeled anti - Park demonstrator and politicians as pro - North Korean communists .
As a result in one pro - Park protest , protesters carried a large American flag and hang a poster with images of Park and Trump and the slogan“Make Korea & America Great Again . ”
The crimson - baiting has made its way of life into President Park ’s most inner circles . Park ’s attorney Seo Seok - gu argued in the Constitutional Court during a hearing that the anti - Park protests were coordinated by North Korea , using a phony North Korean state newspaper which celebrates the protest as evidence for the association . When confronted during a lively television interview , Seo said he“already expressed his regrets”for the allegement .
While fake intelligence may not have deterred the trial or the criminal prosecution , many politicians and journalists are concerned how fake newsworthiness will affect the exceptional election schedule to pass in 60 days . Concerned withthe rolefake news and confederacy websites played in America in encourage misinformation before the election , the esteemed Seoul National University and Naver , South Korea ’s most popular search locomotive internet site , plans to roll out a fact - check feature for the latter after this month .
In the United States , private companies like Facebook and Google are being gainsay to clean up their fake newsworthiness problem . In South Korea , the politics vowed to avail break down on fake news program . Last month , interim President Hwang Kyo - ahn pledged the federal police force and the Ministry of Science willmonitor and block fake newsacting as legitimate word outlets .
But Koo notes the government will not inquire news show partake in on message apps like KakaoTalk which renders the crackdown toothless . “ I find it mirthful that the police are endeavor to shut down the country ’s prosperous rumour mill , ” Koo writes in his phony intelligence feature of speech onKorea Expose .
Last November , the opposite Democratic Party also make an online“rumor report center”to compile and contain fake news articles palisade the scandal , the impeachment trial , and most significantly , about their drawing card and current presidential frontrunner Moon Jae - In .
Moon Jae - In demand not to look far on how fake intelligence can destroy a politician ’s presidential aspiration . Before Moon became the frontrunner , former United Nations Secretary - General Ban Ki - moon was catch as a shoo - in as Park ’s materialistic successor . But Ban dropped out , arrogate phony news gave unreasonable tenseness to him and his family . “ My genuine nationalism and passion were damage by rumour and faux news , ” Bansaid on February 1 .
It is true that bastard news show have been write about Ban , likea viral fake word postabout his U.N. successor Antonio Guterres saying that Ban running for chairwoman was a irreverence of U.N. formula . But what is also unfeigned is thathis younger crony and nephew were indict in the United States for bribery — a crime so matter - of - fact in Korean political relation that it ’s severely not to believe .
