[One Year Since Sports Comments Ban] Olympic 'Malicious Comment Attacks'... Spreading to SNS

Why Sports Athletes Became Targets

Personal Attacks Regardless of Performance
Unable to Overcome Hypocritical Instincts
Hiding Behind Anonymity to Express Twisted Malicious Comments

Possible Punishment for Insult and Defamation
But No System for Athletes to Respond Individually

The men's soccer quarterfinal match between South Korea and Mexico at the Tokyo Olympics, held on the 31st of last month at Yokohama International Stadium. South Korea's Song Bum-geun is showing regret after conceding a goal. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy reporters Seongpil Cho and Daehyun Kim] South Korea's two major portal sites, Naver and Daum, abolished comments on sports news last August. This measure was taken to prevent recurrence after professional women's volleyball player Ko Yumin, who suffered from malicious comments, made an extreme choice. The Tokyo Olympics was the first global sports festival held after this measure. Although malicious comments disappeared from Olympic news content, they still persist. They have migrated to social networking services (SNS) and are rampant there. Unlike portal sites, SNS platforms have virtually no regulatory mechanisms. As a result, athletes, who are the main figures and protagonists of the Olympic season packed with sports events, are exposed to even more indiscriminate malicious comments.

SNS, the New Venue for Malicious Comments

The South Korean men's soccer team lost 3-6 to Mexico in the quarterfinals on the 31st of last month at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Goalkeeper Song Beomgeun bore much of the responsibility. He missed more than half of the 10 shots aimed at the goal. The meaning of the word 'goalkeeper' seemed ironic. The soccer statistics specialist 'SofaScore' gave Song Beomgeun the lowest rating of 5.3 among players from both teams.

After the match, numerous related articles flooded domestic portal sites. Among them, some articles were read by over 200,000 people. There were no comments. In the past, there would have been a flood of malicious comments, not just criticism, targeting the national soccer team and Song Beomgeun. This is the positive effect of the portal sites' decision to abolish comments on sports news.

At around the same time, Song Beomgeun's SNS was flooded with malicious comments. Comments such as "I never saw a good save. It's okay, that's just your capability," "Mediocre performance might be forgivable, but you are not mediocre," and "I recommend you retire, quit playing, and take up farming" were rampant. Malicious comments that used to be centered on portal site news content have shifted to the athlete's personal SNS. This is the 'balloon effect' caused by the portal sites' comment abolition. Song Beomgeun has currently disabled the comment function on his SNS.

Ansan is seen shedding tears as she walks off the podium wearing the gold medal after winning the women's individual archery final at the Tokyo Olympics held at Yumenoshima Park Archery Field in Japan on the 30th of last month.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

It's Not About Performance

Malicious comments targeting athletes poured in regardless of their performance. An San from the archery team is a representative case. After winning gold medals in the mixed team event on the 24th of last month and the women's team event the following day, she was unexpectedly subjected to a 'hate attack.' The trigger was when An San replied to a fan's question on her SNS asking, "Why did you cut your hair?" with "Because it's comfortable." Some male-dominated online communities used her short hair and attendance at a women's university as grounds to label An San a feminist. Indiscriminate personal attacks such as "Return your gold medal," "Gold Megalist," and "Ugly feminist" followed. An San has never stated that she is a feminist.

Jeon Jihee from the women's table tennis team also received malicious comments unrelated to her performance. After losing to Mima Ito (Japan) in the women's singles quarterfinals on the 28th of last month, a past plastic surgery became a target of Chinese netizens. Chinese netizens mocked Jeon Jihee on her SNS, asking, "Did you go to Korea for plastic surgery?" and "Did you completely change your face?" They continued personal attacks by comparing before and after photos of her surgery. Jeon Jihee said about these malicious comments, "I don't understand why people are more interested in my double eyelids than table tennis," and "I ignored them and just prepared for the match." Born in Langfang, China, Jeon Jihee moved to South Korea in 2008 and obtained Korean nationality in 2011.

Why Are They Especially Targeted?

Why do athletes become targets of malicious comments? They represent the nation on the Olympic stage, wearing the Taegeuk mark on their chests. The reason that their performance was below expectations is unconvincing, as seen in cases like An San. Sociology focuses on the keywords 'anonymity' and 'instinct.' "Everyone has a self-centered and double-standard instinct. When they fail to overcome this as healthy members of society, they express it through malicious comments based on anonymity," said Professor Jongmin Park of Kyung Hee University's Department of Media Studies.

There are also voices pointing out structural aspects. Professor Younggil Yoon of Korea National Sport University’s Department of Social Physical Education said, "Celebrities can receive organizational support from agencies and respond systematically, but athletes do not always have agents who play that role. Even in sports with agents, there are few, so systematic responses are difficult, and individual athletes find it hard to spend energy responding to malicious comments." This means that mechanisms and systems to respond to malicious comments are weaker compared to celebrities who receive similar attention.

This structural vulnerability also connects to legal issues. Malicious comments are crimes punishable under criminal law for insult or defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act. However, there are limitations. Defamation is a 'semi-indictable offense,' meaning it cannot be prosecuted against the victim's will. Insult is a 'complaint offense' requiring the victim's complaint for prosecution. In other words, it is practically difficult to prosecute without the athlete personally taking action.

According to statistics from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, the number of cyber defamation cases in South Korea surpassed 10,000 for the first time in 2018, then increased steadily to 11,380 in 2019 and 13,352 last year. This indicates that online defamation through SNS and other platforms continues frequently even after the abolition of comments on sports articles on portal sites. However, cases where athletes have filed complaints are extremely rare. Attorney Giwan Noh of Changcheon Law Firm said, "Although comment sections on articles have been abolished, comments on portal sports videos and SNS are still active, so malicious comments continue to appear," adding, "It is difficult for athletes to respond to each malicious comment alone in reality."

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