Celebrities Are Making Efforts To Fight Cyberwreckers: From Jang Won-young To NewJeans
The evil faces of cyberwreckers who benefit from spreading misinformation about others are being exposed one after another
Cyberwreckers is a term referring to YouTubers who create videos to raise issues about celebrities and earn profits from negative public opinions. In particular, cyberwreckers make money from people’s misfortunes and unfortunate issues.
Jang Won-young from Starship Entertainment’s girl group IVE has partially won the lawsuit against cyberwrecker Sojang. In May 2023, the female idol’s side requested information about the operator of the YouTube channel ‘Sojang’ from Google headquarters in the US. Later in October 2023, the court ruled in favor of the female idol.
Sojang filed an appeal against the verdict and applied for the suspension of the lawsuit. This cyberwrecker is taking measures to avoid the compensation of 100 million won. In response, Jang Won-young’s side warned, “Jang Won-young suffered serious defamation from Sojang’s spread of false rumors. Their behavior not only hinders our artist’s work but also causes pain to her and fans. Our company is doing our best to hold Sojang responsible until the end”
Following Jang Won-young’s legal action, NewJeans also asked the California federal court to disclose the identity of an account that made defamation comments against the members. The U.S. federal court approved the request, allowing NewJeans to file civil and criminal lawsuits more easily.
A lot of people have given up on legal actions after facing difficulties in identifying cyberwreckers because they are mostly active on overseas platforms and they may only be fined lightly. However, as more and more requests for identity disclosure have been made and approved, cyberwreckers can no longer benefit from making up fake news.
In particular, as cyberwreckers are also reporting each other, the efforts to eradicate such crimes are accelerating. The recent case of content creator Tzuyang, who was bullied by those who exploited her weakness, is an example. As those problematic YouTubers tried to hide, they ended up exposing each other. Tzuyang’s side is also taking legal action against them, attention is focused on the punishment they will get.
From Jang Won-young to NewJeans and Tzuyang, misbehaviors on YouTube have gradually been brought to light.
