Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter

Last week, 14 people were fined 10 million won each for posting abusive Internet messages about the death of a social activist’s son. The activist is Lim Soo-kyung.
In 1989, before the 2000 inter-Korean reconciliation, Lim, then a college student, visited the North and has since pursued various activities for reunification of the two Koreas.

When the news of the accidental death of Lim’s son broke on Internet in July, the accused people posted anonymous messages ridiculing the death. Some called Lim a `Red’.

Shockingly, a majority of the accused were men of high social status or education, including a university professor and finance expert.

They reportedly said that while they had nothing personal against Lim, they posted such comments as they needed a vicarious subject upon which to vent their anger toward the current North-friendly government.

On Monday police decided to punish Internet users who, last July, posted unfounded rumors regarding popular singer-and-actor Rain, saying he had confessed during a radio show of having had a sexual relationship with a female singer while speaking on the phone with another singer, without knowing that it was being broadcasted live.

As there was no truthful basis to the rumor police fined four of the accused.

It is not the first time that victims of a malicious cyber attack have taken legal action.

According to police, there were many cases of candidates during the 2004 general election accusing people of posting ``akpul’’ on Internet sites.

Akpul, is a term coined by Internet users by combining two words. `Ak’ is the Chinese character to mean evil or vicious, and `pul’ is the Koreanized pronunciation of the word `reply.’ Accordingly, it means an abusive and unreasonable reply for comments posted anonymously by Internet users in response to news stories.

For stars or public figures, it has been almost impossible to avoid akpul since they are always the subject of envy and gossip.

With the two incidents expected to warn ill-mannered Internet users, experts are looking for solutions to the abundance of akpul.

As for the cause of abusive messages on the Internet, experts say that the guaranteed anonymity and the current system of Internet portal sites easily lure users into expressing their raw feelings without second thought.

Song Kyong-jae, a researcher at Kyunghee University, said the current system attracts unwanted and unrefined comments.

``Thus, instead of having a sense of ownership or responsibility within the system, you come to rather just discharge your rough feelings and thoughts,’’ he said. ``Instead of allowing online postings below news stories, Internet portal sites should support more active online discussion on various social topics so that people can give reasonable opinions.’’

Jang Woo-young, a researcher at the social science institute with Sogang University, said since the Internet allows you to comment without facing the counterpart, the importance of manners and rules of conversation become much less significant. ``In contrast to offline space in which mass media plays a main role in communication, everyone gets their chance to speak out online. Such suppressed feelings and opinions in reality are being expressed in a form of angry, malicious replies on the Internet,’’ he said.

``Personally, I don’t read messages posted by anonymous readers below news stories because I know that most of them are trash. Regrettably enough, Lim must have been shocked when reading them as she took them seriously. She should have not read them at all in the first place,’’ said Hwang Sang-min, a professor of psychology at Yonsei University.

According to a recent poll by Internet portal sites, more than 68 percent of respondents agreed to legal action against those who make such angry replies.

However, they also point out that although akpul deserves to be blamed, it is not desirable to deal with them through legal means saying that such measures could reduce freedom of expression.

``Despite side effects, the Internet has opened a new era for active and horizontal communication. Considering that the strength of Internet culture lies in its democratic nature and openness, the most important thing here is that Internet users regulate themselves and exercise mature manners,’’ Jang said.

Under new policies to prevent akpul popular Internet portal sites such as Empas, Daum, Yahoo Korea and NHN have announced they will strengthen monitoring and disclose the IP (Internet Protocol) addresses of anonymous posters. They will reform the system so that when pressing an ID of a person who posts a new message regarding news stories, his or her previous messages can be seen, consequently preventing users from taking advantage of anonymity.

michelle@koreatimes.co.kr