Digital Prison "Resumes Operation"... Initial Operators Sequentially 'Go Silent' (Comprehensive)

Digital Kyodoso, Previously Blocked, Announces Resumption of Operations
2nd Operator: "From Now On, Personal Information Will Only Be Disclosed with Clear Evidence"
Police Request Interpol Cooperation on Digital Kyodoso... All Operators Have Disappeared
Broadcasting Review Committee 'Deferred Decision'... Review to Resume When Access Is Possible

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] Despite police investigations and public backlash against the website 'Digital Gyodoso' that arbitrarily discloses personal information of criminals, its operators have defiantly continued their activities. Although the site’s identified operators have gone into hiding, another operator has emerged and announced plans to 'resume operations.'

On the 11th, a statement posted on the main page of the Digital Gyodoso website was uploaded by an individual claiming to be the second-generation operator. Until the previous day, the website had been inaccessible not only in South Korea but also in countries such as the United States and Australia.

The second-generation operator stated, "The first-generation operators have all been identified by the police and are now subject to Interpol red notices," adding, "In this situation, the first-generation operators likely found it extremely difficult to continue running Digital Gyodoso, so they gave up and went into hiding."

He continued, "After hearing about the investigative cooperation from the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the first-generation operators prepared for this situation starting in August and entrusted several helpers with server access accounts and domain management accounts, asking them to resume site operations," and claimed, "After much deliberation, I took over the site’s operation."

He also said, "I am well aware that Digital Gyodoso is currently facing significant criticism due to controversies over private sanctions and that there are many calls for the site’s closure," but added, "However, Digital Gyodoso is a website too valuable to disappear just like this. If Digital Gyodoso disappears, dozens of incarcerated criminals will be forgotten by everyone, reintegrate into society, and live normal lives."

The second-generation operator promised, "From now on, we will only disclose personal information when there is clear evidence visible to anyone, such as court rulings or media press releases," and stated, "Posts uploaded so far that lack sufficient evidence have been ruthlessly deleted, and some posts will be re-uploaded after supplementing evidence," expressing the intention to continue operating the site.

He also added, "I sincerely apologize to those who were harmed by the first-generation operators who uploaded false reports without sufficient verification."

Aside from this statement, no other posts are currently visible on the Digital Gyodoso homepage. However, some posts have been restored online.

Statement from the Digital Prison. / Photo by Digital Prison Website

Digital Gyodoso, born out of public distrust in judicial institutions, has enjoyed tacit public support fueled by nationwide outrage over a series of 'Nth Room incidents.' However, as innocent victims have emerged due to the disclosure of personal information, the site has lost even the justification of judging criminals through private sanctions.

Recently, after personal information was disclosed on Digital Gyodoso, a Korea University student who claimed innocence took an extreme step, and there was even a case where the personal information of a medical school professor at a university in the Seoul metropolitan area was disclosed on allegations of 'attempting to purchase sexual exploitation materials.' Police investigations revealed that the professor was unrelated to the incident.

There have also been cases where individuals were mistakenly identified as criminals and had their personal information disclosed simply because they shared the same name. Personal information has been indiscriminately posted even when unrelated to crimes but involved in social controversies. A representative example is the disclosure of personal information of judges, including Judge Kang Young-soo, who refused the extradition of Son Jung-woo, the operator of the child sexual exploitation site 'Welcome to Video (W2V).'

The police have identified some of the Digital Gyodoso operators and requested cooperation from Interpol in a foreign country based on their access records. The Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency’s Cyber Investigation Unit has been handling the Digital Gyodoso-related investigation since July.

According to the police, all identified operators are currently in hiding, and none confirmed to be residing domestically. The police are narrowing the investigation net by requesting passport invalidation measures for those identified and subject to Interpol notices. The police are also conducting multifaceted investigations, suspecting that an individual who previously operated multiple personal information disclosure accounts on social networking services (SNS) such as Instagram’s 'nbunbang' is the same person as the Digital Gyodoso operators. This account owner has previously admitted in media interviews to having established the Digital Gyodoso site.

This is not the first time a self-proclaimed 'vigilante group' with the nature of private sanctions has appeared. In the past, expos? accounts named 'Gangnam Patch' and 'Hannam Patch,' among others, indiscriminately disclosed personal information of ordinary people, causing controversy. Several innocent victims emerged at that time as well. The Gangnam Patch operator was sentenced to 10 months in prison by the court, and by comparison, Digital Gyodoso operators are also likely to face punishment if caught.

There have been cases where private sanctions by civilians were recognized as serving the public interest. For example, the operator of 'Bad Fathers,' who disclosed the personal information of parents who failed to pay child support, was acquitted of defamation charges. It was recognized that the information disclosed by Bad Fathers was for 'public interest' without malicious intent. However, the majority opinion views Digital Gyodoso as having a clear intent to defame.

Meanwhile, the Korea Communications Standards Commission held a Communications Review Subcommittee meeting the day before and decided to 'defer resolution' on Digital Gyodoso, citing its current inaccessibility. The commission stated, "If Digital Gyodoso is redistributed in the future, we plan to promptly review and, if deemed illegal, request international cooperation through overseas service providers in addition to blocking domestic user access."

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