Free Speech and Witch Hunts- the net as speech

[welsh]

Saw this article and thought it looked interesting.

What kinds of responsibility come with being anonymous on the net? Does the nature of the net, and the danger of being 'transparent' with one's identity lead to the necessity of being anonymous? And if so, is the net as free as it could be?

What happens when a person's privacy and identity are revealed? How can the damage be limited?

South Korea

Free speech and witch hunts

Aug 11th 2005
From The Economist print edition


A train, a dog and a backlash against growing “cyber violence”

EARLIER this year, the photograph of a young South Korean woman who failed to clean up after her dog in a railway carriage appeared on the internet. Web-users throughout the country co-operated to reveal her identity, and for weeks the woman, quickly dubbed the “dogshit girl”, became the number one hate figure among the country's cyber community. Vicious and defamatory messages appeared on the internet and her university website was bombarded with hate mail.

Fair enough, letting your dog shit on a train is kind of repugnant.

But the number one hate figure amoung a cyber community? A little over the top? I mean really, can't these folks get a life?

Oh and if you are wondering- See Wikipedia-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_poop_girl

Wikipedia? Fuck.

Such cases of “cyber violence” are reaching alarming proportions in South Korea, prompting a shift in public attitudes towards the exercise of unbridled free speech on the web. In the early days of the dog incident, bloggers were unconditionally critical of the woman's anti-social behaviour. Now, criticism has been replaced by growing concern about witch-hunts.

South Korea has the highest rate of broadband penetration in the world. This, together with the tightly knit nature of Korean society, has given these cyber-attacks a brutal edge. The victims of digital persecution range from the female Korean singer who was forced to deny wild and unsubstantiated rumours that she was a man to the schoolgirls whose photos and personal details were splashed on the net after allegedly driving a classmate to suicide.

And if the net becomes more widespread, we can expect more of this. Perhaps this case in Korea provides a shadow of our future.

The speed of technological change, as well as the cases of attacks meted out over the internet, has left the authorities struggling to respond. The government has said that freedom of expression must be balanced with responsibility as it considers measures to crack down on harassment over the web. One proposal would require Korean web users to register their personal information before leaving messages on bulletin boards—a measure supported by the vast majority of citizens, according to a recent government-backed online survey.

And thus better for the government and everyone else to know you? Is this really the best response?

However, critics of the “real-names system” oppose the plan, saying it undermines the freewheeling nature of the internet and would suppress legitimate criticism and minority opinions. They also question its feasibility. The canine incident has sparked public debate, but that will be of cold comfort to the woman involved, whose reputation has been annihilated. She has reportedly been forced to drop out of university.

Your thoughts?

 

[Ratty Sr.]

"Dogshit girl"? Bwahahahahaha!

Ah, but seriously, I don't find this "cyber violence" problem particularly disconcerting, mainly because it's nothing new. Gossip wasn't invented with the world wide web, but world wide web helps it spread faster. In this particular case, I don't even sympathize particularly with the victim. The "dogshit girl" was at fault on two accounts: 1. she broke both a law and a social norm by failing to clean up after her dog and 2. she made no attempt to conceal her identity, indicating she wasn't particularly ashamed of her faux. Pardon my insensitivity, but such blatant disregard of law and accepted social norms is rude and should be sanctioned. Though the defamation of character she experienced afterwards was excessive, it may actually have been productive - I'm sure other dog owners in South Korea now think twice before leaving their dogs' droppings lying in public for everyone to see.

Regarding cyber abuse in general, my advice is - when doing something legally prohibited, morally reprehensible, or simply silly and deviant, use discretion. If your life is ruined because someone took pictures of you fingering your anus in a crowded theater and posted them on the Internet, then it's first and foremost your own fault, because you could have easily avoided such a development by simply not fingering your anus in a crowded theater.*

* any similarity of this content to real people, events, or other material is completely coincidental and unintentional

 

[calculon000]

This seems a little over the top for some dog poop.

But ask yourself, would you feel sorry for the person if they were an American being targeted for doing any of the following:

• Owning an SUV
  Winning a frivolous lawsuit
  Getting less votes in an election, yet still winning

perhaps leaving dog poop in a public place is just as annoying in South Korea. I don't really feel sorry for the lady, but then again, I don't really like dogs and their poop.