Online disinformation and hate speech are eroding politics around the world, but South Korea is also witnessing actual violence among a highly polarized electorate ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in the neck in January in a dramatic display of the political atmosphere ahead of Wednesday’s parliamentary elections.
Lee survived, but analysts fear the weight of the hyper-political atmosphere and “incitement of hatred” online could prompt others to come out from behind their keyboards. .
Wednesday’s parliamentary polls will determine whether the opposition Democratic Party (DP) can expand its majority and further weaken the conservative president. Yoon Seok Yeol and his People Power Party (PPP).
The country of 51 million faces a number of pressing problems, including a doctors’ strike, a struggling economy, a declining population and a rocky relationship with nuclear-armed North Korea.
But the online rhetoric has focused more on the personalities of the leading candidates and, if some of the thousands of social media posts are to be believed, the outlandish dangers the party appears to represent. .
“If we don’t get a majority, Lee Jae-myung will hand over our country to red China and destroy the Korea-US alliance,” reads a typical message on Facebook.
AFP Fact Check has also seen a surge in doctored images and videos, including one of Li bowing to a statue of Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong. Relations with China are a sensitive topic in South Korea.
Other images were altered to show him being attacked with chopsticks and sustaining minor injuries. In fact, Lee was stabbed with a hunting knife during an attack in the port city of Busan and required emergency surgery.
– Former President in Prison –
South Korea’s politics are notoriously hostile, with two of the past three presidents imprisoned on corruption charges.
Mr. Yoon defeated Mr. Lee by the smallest margin in Korean political history and became president in 2022, but the rift has deepened since then.
Democratic Progressive Party leader Han Dong-hoon called Lee and Cho Kuk of the Korea Reconstruction Party “criminals” at a rally, referring to the allegations made by them.
Mr. Yoon has used adjectives such as “anti-national forces” and “gang-like cartels” to describe his opponents.
Lee Jae-guk, a media communication professor at Sungkyunkwan University, said social media is accelerating political polarization.
Lee Jae-guk told AFP, “What was previously absorbed through consumers’ voluntary participation is absorbed into the subconscious mind when users unconsciously access the web or watch YouTube videos.” “These messages are becoming increasingly dangerous.”
– “traitor” –
The online history of the person who attacked Lee Jae-myung, a 67-year-old real estate agent who posed as a supporter at an election event, has been revealed.
“The only way for South Korea to regenerate is to arrest and execute Lee Jae-myung, Moon Jae-in, and all of their fellow communists,” he told Yoon’s predecessor in one post several months ago. I wrote this while mentioning it.
“Only then will President Yoon Seok-yeol be free to save this country.”
Lee Jae-han, a political scientist at Incheon University, told AFP that the incident shows that the current climate means politicians “can become objects of near-religious worship and fanatical hatred at the same time.” He said he was there.
A few weeks after Lee Jae-myung was stabbed to death, a 15-year-old boy repeatedly hit ruling party lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin in the back of the head with a rock in Seoul’s upscale Gangnam district.
Bae’s injuries were not serious, but Yoon described the attack on her as an “act of terrorism.”
~Fake video~
Police announced on Monday that they had arrested a man accused of uploading a fake video to Instagram, Facebook and TikTok apologizing for Yun’s corruption and incompetence.
Facebook and other social media platforms have removed some posts, but the volume is overwhelming.
Both major political parties are calling for an end to what opposition leader Lee called the “politics of hate,” but experts say social media has not weakened the rivalry and is likely to It is said that the gender is also low.
According to a study by Lee Jae-guk of Sungkyunkwan University, half of the 30 million comments left on news coverage of the 2022 presidential election contained some form of hate.
“Most of it was close to typical insults and belittling, but a good portion of it resembled incitement to hatred, with users calling for acts of violence against specific people or groups,” Lee Jae-guk said. .
“We’ve seen this type of trend before, when Trumpism took over a polarized America,” he said.
“South Korea may be its closest relative.”
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