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EungyungEileenChoiFirstEssay 6 - 10 Jan 2020 - Main.EungyungEileenChoi
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| | | In the aftermath of the impeachment, Mr. Moon was elected as the new president and his political party gained the majority in the Korean parliament. One year after, the current ruling party requested the police to investigate suspicious activity on the internet. They found that the number of 'likes' of articles opposing Mr. Moon and 'dislikes' of articles that favored Mr. Moon spiked in an irregular pattern. Few months later, a man, widely known by its social media ID 'Duru King', was convicted for impairing the operation of portal website servers by manipulating the numbers of 'likes' or 'dislikes' for certain articles or opinions using a hacking tool called 'King crab'. It was found that Duru King had initially operated the King crab for the benefit of Mr. Moon during his presidential election campaign for which he received some money from a very important figure in Mr. Moon's camp. After President Moon's victory, Duru King asked that a man well-acquainted with himself should be appointed as a high-rank diplomat but his request was rejected. That's when he turned his back and started to use the King crab against Mr. Moon. | |
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< | The history of internet opinion manipulation in Korean politics dates way back. Several politicians from different political parties were convicted for hiring people to distribute false information through the internet to slander his opposing candidate in a primary race or election, in 2004, 2008, and 2012. A former head of the Korean intelligence agency is serving jail time for having ordered his subordinates to post mass comments or retweet comments that support Ms. Park who was then running for president. | >
> | The history of internet opinion manipulation in Korean politics dates way back. Several politicians from different political parties were convicted for hiring people to distribute disinformation through the internet to slander his opposing candidate in a primary race or election, in 2004, 2008, and 2012. A former head of the Korean intelligence agency is serving jail time for having ordered his subordinates to post mass comments or retweet comments in support of Ms. Park who was then running for president. | | | Baby, One more time | |
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< | Now, some might question what real harm it does to tweak a few numbers of 'likes' or 'dislikes' or put out some false information on the internet. Most of the information on the internet is not verified, most times even the author or source is anonymous, and most people know that, don't they? However, even if people are not sure whether an information or opinion is genuine and true, it can have a substantial impact. A classic psychological experiment by Solomon Asch observed that about one third (32%) of the participants conformed to the clearly wrong majority view although most of them said that they did not really believe their answer but were afraid of being different (McLeod? , S. A. (2018, Dec 28). Solomon Asch - Conformity Experiment. https://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html) Asch suggested that it was the social pressure and thus should be able toare know that and thus they should screen the information and Shouldn't people know better than just receiving it as a plain fact? their reasoning incorrect anywa iFollowing the above developments in Korea, I'm terrified about the consequences that the misuse of the internet can have on democracy. However, I also believe that democracy is still the best method to protect civil rights and to effectively and fairly run a country. There is an old saying in Korea that describes my feelings towards this issue, 'I hate you, but one more time'. It is used in situations where one loves another person so much that one cannot abandon the other person in spite of his/her faults and gives him/her another try. Therefore, rather than jumping to the conclusion that we should declare democracy dead because of the risks it faces in the internet society, | >
> | Now, some might question what real harm does it? Does the number of 'likes' or 'dislikes' really matter? Don't people have their own views and opinions? Even major news media spread incorrect or inaccurate news from time to time. More importantly, most times it is very difficult to draw a clear line between information, misinformation, and disinformation. If we were to ban any information that bears a risk of being incorrect, wouldn't that sacrifice the sacred freedom of speech?
Well, a classic psychological experiment by Solomon Asch suggests those things matter. In his well-known conformity experiment, Asch observed that about one third (32%) of the participants conformed to the clearly wrong majority view although most of them said that they did not really believe their answer but were afraid of being different (McLeod? , S. A. (2018, Dec 28). Solomon Asch - Conformity Experiment. https://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html) Asch suggested that it was the social pressure and thus should be able toare know that and thus they should screen the information and Shouldn't people know better than just receiving it as a plain fact? their reasoning incorrect anywa iFollowing the above developments in Korea, I'm terrified about the consequences that the misuse of the internet can have on democracy. However, I also believe that democracy is still the best method to protect civil rights and to effectively and fairly run a country. There is an old saying in Korea that describes my feelings towards this issue, 'I hate you, but one more time'. It is used in situations where one loves another person so much that one cannot abandon the other person in spite of his/her faults and gives him/her another try. Therefore, rather than jumping to the conclusion that we should declare democracy dead because of the risks it faces in the internet society, | | |
Who has actually been doing this? It doesn't seem necessary to write an essay countering this argument unless someone is really making it. |
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