hankyoreh

There’s an epidemic of fake news in full swing. Absurdly concocted news stories are being used in particular to stir up sentiments at rallies opposing President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment. Pseudo-newspaper articles filled with manufactured news are being spread widely; right-wing speakers are inciting demonstrators by quoting the pieces as though they were true. At an anti-impeachment rally last weekend by pro-Park groups, Liberty Korea Party lawmaker Kim Jin-tae outright lied that the Choi Sun-sil Special Prosecutor was “examining a cultural blacklist that wasn’t even subject to its investigations.” A document called “No Cut Ilbe” distributed that day printed false articles quoting Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon as allegedly lamenting, “We should have opened a skating rink as a tourist site [in Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall] instead.” The abundance of fake news stories is becoming more clever and large enough in scale that it could endanger the very forum of public discourse if left unaddressed.

The fake news previously spread over social media as the impeachment scandal escalated, most prominent through the Kakao Talk accounts of pro-Park groups. Recently, it has “evolved” into paper media format. The headlines and format are close enough to ordinary articles to look like real news at first glance. The content, however, includes clear lies and distortions of fact, along with false reports defaming specific individuals. The stories about Choi Sun-sil’s tablet PC being “a fake” or the Apr. 2014 Sewol ferry sinking being “ordered by North Korea” all deny the legitimacy of Park’s impeachment and paint candlelight demonstrators as pro-North Korea forces. They even make up nonexistent organizations and sources for “interviews with overseas academics” that present the President’s impeachment as a “bizarre and insidious ploy.” These absurd canards end up being rapidly spread as they‘re shared thousands of times over social media.

The making and distribution of fake news is an act of hostility against media, a distortion of the democratic principle of a free press and attack on its foundations. It’s particularly dangerous and immoral as an abuse of the tendency for people who don’t have enough information to trust in the fake news they encounter over and over, judging there to be “no smoke without a fire.” Using fake news to attack specific people with falsehoods is a clearly criminal act. The making and distribution of fake news is no different from the propaganda of the Nazis, who used lies to deceive the German public and plunge them into the horrors of war.

Police have reportedly assigned specialized investigators to crack down on fake news. They need to investigate this swiftly and fairly, cracking down on illegal actions and assigning responsibility to perpetrators where it is due. A democracy cannot be upheld when Goebbels-esque lies are allowed to run rampant.

A newspaper distributed at the right-wing pro-Park Geun-hye rally on Feb. 11

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