More Independence Activists Mocked Ahead of Liberation Day... Seo Kyungduk Urges Active Reporting of Offensive Posts

Seokyungduk Seo: "Posts Mocking Independence Activists on TikTok and Other Platforms"

Bizarre Examples Include Appearance Ratings and Contribution Rankings

"A Strategy to Boost Account Engagement"—Urges Platforms to Respond

With ten days remaining until Liberation Day, numerous posts mocking independence activists have been uploaded on social networking services (SNS), sparking controversy.

Professor Seokyungduk of Sungshin Women's University has revealed posts mocking independence activists that were uploaded on TikTok and other social media platforms. Facebook

On August 4, Professor Seokyungduk from Sungshin Women's University wrote on his SNS account, "In preparation for Liberation Day, I examined TikTok and a variety of other SNS platforms and found that there were still many posts mocking independence activists." On the previous March 1st Movement Day, TikTok had sparked public outrage after videos created using artificial intelligence (AI)—such as "Yu Gwansun's Fart Rocket" and "An Junggeun's Fart Train"—were posted on the platform.

According to the latest investigation, the types of posts detected included "appearance evaluations" and "ranking activists by their contributions." Professor Seo stated, "There were truly nonsensical posts comparing the independence activists to the games and idols they like." He pointed out, "Above all, it appears that these users are leveraging well-known independence activists such as An Junggeun, Yu Gwansun, and Kim Gu to boost engagement on their own accounts."

Such posts were also reported back in April. Professor Seo shared that, ahead of the anniversary of the establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, he had conducted a survey centered on TikTok and discovered posts belittling Kim Gu and Yoon Bonggil. The posts included comments such as "Who is this guy?" about Kim Gu, and "Why are you eating the lunchbox bomb?" addressed to Yoon Bonggil. Professor Seo also highlighted, "I even found unbelievable images that sexually depicted independence activists." It appears that similar types of content have been repeatedly posted ahead of national holidays.

However, there are insufficient legal grounds for punishment. Under current law, the crime of insult does not apply to deceased individuals, making it impossible to pursue criminal charges for simple defamation or ridicule. Professor Seo explained, "The offense of defaming the deceased is recognized only when false information is involved, making it much more difficult to prosecute than standard defamation." For this reason, during his April investigation, he called for legislative improvements. He said, "The government and the National Assembly must promptly prepare amendments to the Act on the Treatment of Persons of Distinguished Services to the Independence Movement to prevent acts that insult independence activists."

This time, Professor Seo emphasized the response of SNS users and platforms. He said, "The most important thing is for netizens to actively report malicious content on SNS so that such posts cannot be exposed," and added, "Platform operators must reinforce active monitoring to ensure that such posts can no longer be uploaded."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.