Famous YouTuber Kwak Tube canceled the talk concert scheduled to be held in Busan on the 28th. This was shortly after content filmed with a singer-turned-actor who was suspected of bullying members of the same group in the past became controversial. In the video, Kwak Tube said to the actor, “It seemed like he was harming the person who was misunderstood (as the perpetrator),” which led to the controversy that ‘Kwak Tube is supporting the perpetrator of bullying.’ The video was deleted along with an apology, but criticism continued, and a netizen who claimed to be Kwak Tub’s classmate even spread the false statement that “Kwak Tub stole things during his school days.”
The ‘digital guillotine’ phenomenon, in which the public seeks to privately condemn celebrities who have become socially controversial, is becoming increasingly frequent. The ‘cancel culture’ phenomenon, which is a movement to bring about change by boycotting controversial people or companies, has intensified with immediate punishment and harsh criticism. Previously, in May of this year, the YouTube channel ‘Pisik University’ was guillotined for making disparaging remarks about the region in content filmed in Yeongyang-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do. An apology was issued and promotional content is being produced consistently in time for the Yeongyang Regional Festival, but the number of subscribers who decided to ‘cancel their subscription’ after the incident reached approximately 320,000.
With the development of social networking services (SNS), DigiTeen’s target audience is expanding beyond celebrities to include YouTubers and influencers. Lim Myung-ho, a professor of psychology at Dankook University, said, “Digitizing, which is mainly done on social media, can easily lead to confirmation bias and errors in generalization. “They are using their own information and opinions as weapons to impose private punishments before public sanctions or investigations can take place,” he said. “As problems directly related to survival, such as employment and housing, worsen, young people have become obsessed with fairness and believe in themselves, ‘I must not make mistakes. “The obsession with ‘becoming’ is being projected onto successful celebrities,” he explained.
Digitin functions to quickly raise public attention to issues that require social discussion. However, if there is a rush to punish quickly, there is a possibility that it will end up eliminating one ‘evil person’ based on public opinion for and against rather than fundamental consideration of society as a whole. In particular, the number of subscribers and views are directly related to profits, and unlike portal sites where comments on entertainment articles are limited, the nature of SNS makes it easy to leave explicit comments, so YouTubers and influencers are likely to suffer from pressure to apologize.
In June of this year, the YouTube channel ‘Singgeulbungle’ sparked controversy for ‘mocking soldiers’ with a video of a person laughing and saying, “What are you doing if you like the massager? You can’t use it when you’re in the military.” However, this did not expand into a discussion on improving the treatment of soldiers and ended with an apology from the channel and deletion of the video. Culture critic Jeong Deok-hyun said, “Recently, DigiTeen has taken on the aspect of group pushing rather than rational conflict of opinion, and discussions on essential issues are taking a backseat,” and added, “It is difficult to express opinions on politically and socially important issues.” “Due to the social structure, people rally violently even over trivial issues,” he analyzed.
There is also a view that our country demands particularly strict moral standards from celebrities. Ha Jae-geun, a social and cultural critic, said, “Compared to Western countries, Korea is one of the countries where the public has strict moral standards.” “There is a greater tendency to judge first, rather than arguing and watching to make up for mistakes,” he said.
It is pointed out that the atmosphere of denying even efforts to correct mistakes is unhealthy. Critic Jeong said, “A society capable of sustainable growth can be achieved only when mistakes are tolerated according to their severity and opportunities to make up for them are provided,” adding, “If excessive self-censorship leads to this, it will lead to a society where it is difficult for individuals to freely express their opinions.” .
Reporter Lee Ji-yoon [email protected]
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2024-10-03 01:42:18