30s Man Manipulating Recommendation Counts for 'Kim Man-bae Interview' Post... Suspended Prison Sentence in First Trial

A man in his 30s accused of posting an interview article with Kim Man-bae on an online community and manipulating the number of recommendations for the post was sentenced to a suspended prison term in the first trial.

According to the legal community on the 7th, on January 31, Judge Jeong Cheol-min of the Criminal Division 7 at the Seoul Western District Court sentenced Park, a man in his 30s indicted for computer-related obstruction of business, to six months in prison with a one-year suspension.

Park was prosecuted for manipulating the recommendation count of a post titled "Hwacheon Daeyu was the beginning of Yoon Seok-yeol's lenient investigation" posted on the online community 'MLB Park' on March 7 last year, just before the presidential election. The post included a Newstapa article alleging that President Yoon Seok-yeol covered up the investigation of the 2011 Busan Savings Bank case. He manipulated the recommendation count through a macro that increased the recommendations of the post containing the Newstapa article when viewing his own post titled "Anyone who changed their mind after seeing the transcript?" The total number of manipulated views using this method was 73.

The court stated, "Considering that this undermines the credibility of MLB Park and attempts to mislead public opinion, the nature of the crime is not good," but added, "His confession and remorse, and the fact that he removed the URL used for manipulating the recommendation count within four minutes after the initial offense are favorable circumstances."

Park filed an appeal on March 9, dissatisfied with the first trial's verdict.

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