The status quo of *Akple* culture; "flaming the innocent"
WHO DO you think are the Akplers? Are you sure that they have nothing in relation to you and your surroundings? You may want to deny it, but in reality, Akplers are the ones around you and perhaps could be your most intimate one. Setting the range of Akplers to strangers and striving to stamp them out of our society is similar to the Salem witchcraft era of the 17th century. During that intolerant time, a great number of innocent women were victimized, falsely accused of being witches. Likewise, irregardless of your will, you can be misconceived as one of the Akplers and become the subject for all kinds of unfair criticism. Under these circumstances, who will be the next scapegoat?
The origin of Akple and its background
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Keyboard Warrior: This word was introduced on the first page of the Jan. 23rd Chosun-Ilbo issue as a formal word for Akpler. Keyboard warrior refers to people who produce Akples constantly. The word implies contempt towards the Akplers in that they swagger only in the cyberspace. Akple is originated from the Chinese character “惡” (Ak) meaning wickedness and the English word “reply” (ple). It signifies malicious comments or curses added to any online texts that arouses shame and sexual stimulus to Internet users, and is mainly written as a personal attack. Akple includes real facts containing content that the subject wishes to keep secret as well as fabricated stories meant to vilify a subject.
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| Kim Wang-bae | ||
Then, what has aroused the surfacing of Akples? In fact, the background has much to do with our fundamental social atmosphere. This condition, in which most of the Korean population has easier access to the Internet, without established cyberspace ethics, is one of examples to be considered. To have an in-depth look into Akple problems, Kim Wang-bae (Prof., Dept. of Sociology) has provided a sociological analysis. He states, “Looking at our past history such as the totalitarianism and ideological conflicts, citizens have never really had a chance to be trained in constructive criticism. Many are unaccustomed to the so called ‘public sphere,’ where the independent ‘I’ freely exchanges opinions with others.” As another problem, Kim also points out that Koreans tend to regard verbal attacks less seriously, though they are one of the most dreadful means of attack which occur in our modern society. Due to these reasons, the current national Akple-distress has perhaps become inescapable.
Who are the Akplers?
While no particular studies have been conducted solely concerning Akplers, their overall characteristics can be inferred based on past police investigations and counseling cases. A common characteristic of overall Akplers is that they represent a “defeated group” of our society. These defeats could have happened in business, interpersonal relationship, or for other unknown reasons. According to Chosun-Ilbo (Jan., 23), most Akplers are presumed to be students from elementary to high school as well as the unemployed who tend to stay at home for long periods of time. Plus, they are said to be rather timid in the real world, which leads them to turn combatant online.
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| Yoo Hee-jeong | ||
If so, what are the reasons behind Akple writing? In the words of Yoo Hee-Jeong (Assistant Prof., Dept. of Neuropsychiatry at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital), Akplers engage in writing Akples due to an excessive desire to receive attention and to relieve stress that comes from the limitations they have faced in reality. “The reason Akplers discharge their feelings in a distorted way is because the communication abilities of Akplers are immature. In other words, they are not
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| Chae Jeong-ho | ||
Case analysis
Then how do Akples take place in reality? To mention the case of celebrities, U;NEE’s suicide cannot be neglected. Though Akples cannot be the only reason why she killed herself, many people assume that Akples may have been a big part of it. Another famous singer, Harisu, for instance, finally sued the Akpler who had assaulted her and her fans frequently on her personal website. “Harisu sometimes had even contacted the Akplers and asked them not to write any more Akples. Some of them, however, did not show any sign of regret,” an affiliate of Harisu points out.
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| Harisu | ||
Meanwhile, numerous ordinary people also experience Akples. Many times, the victims of the Akples suffer mental as well as emotional shock and this makes them run away from their homes or suffer from the depression which can cause a disastrous result, such as suicide. Some of the Akple victims even face difficulties in their social lives because other people obtain wrong or private Akples that deal with victims’ sexual competence, social status and private lives. “Ordinary people generally receive Akples from small-scale groups in which they participate such as friends in their schools or co-workers from their companies,” says Park Hyuk-muk, an attorney at KR Law Office. Easily written Akples may turn out to be chaotic to the victims, considering that this is false and private information and these slanders can result in misunderstandings between them and other people within these small communities.
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| Kwon Na-yeon | ||
The cases where Akples have negatively affected one’s social life can be found occasionally. “Once there was an unfortunate middle school girl. This girl’s mom had taken a picture of her teacher hitting this girl. Armed with the picture, this mom made calls to schools and the girl’s teachers. Within this procedure, one teacher committed suicide and many of the students uploaded and wrote uncountable Akples on the Internet, blaming the teacher’s suicide on the girl. At last, this student ran away from her home since she couldn’t stand it,” says Kwon Na-yeon (Assistant Manager of Victim Support Team at Reports and Counseling Division of the Korea Internet Safety Commission).
As these examples show, in reality, the Akples generate many more serious problems than most people realize. Considering the fact that Akples can harm one’s social life as well as feelings and that everybody can be both the Akplers and the victims of the Akples, Akples should be recognized as one of the biggest problems that currently occur in Korean society.
Measures in process
Since the current situation has gone beyond many people’s tolerance, various solutions are being discussed as well as carried out in order to fight Akples. As for the companies associated with major portal sites, administrators are encouraged to firmly and vigorously deal with Akples such as those who delete comments which have been requested or thought to have broken established “netiquette”. An affiliate at one of the biggest Korean portal sites Naver said, “We have 250 people working around the clock to monitor Akples and have devised ways to curb Akples as much as possible by not allowing certain words to be typed. To people who have written problematic Akples more than twice, we put limits to text-writing with the same screen name and qualify both the screen name and I.P. (Internet Protocol) address for over a month if he or she is a habitual Akpler.”
Another notable movement is the establishment of Internet websites, specifically designed with the purpose of eradicating Akplers. “We strive to spread clean cyberspace etiquette throughout the Internet and at the same time try our best to rebuild a healthy discussing culture, which has been lost mostly due to Akples that were adulterated with jokes and curse words. We even put our words into action at times by taking pictures of harmful Akples and reporting them to the divisions in charge,” states Kim Myung-ho, the manager of the Naver Cafe, “Exterminating Akplers.”
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| A counselor at KISCOM helping out a victim through real-time online counseling | ||
Lastly, KISCOM (Korea Internet Safety Commission), founded in 1995 is working diligently to ensure “clean cyberspace”. To introduce their numerous activities, KISCOM conducts real-time online counseling for victims of Akples and also posts certain detrimental information, in order to establish deliberation so that it can be seen as unwholesome. If the information is judged to be unwholesome, KISCOM asks owners of portal sites to delete it and if not, requests it to be identified as harmful information for juveniles. Recently, the foundation has also carried out campaigns at Peace Square (in Olympic Park) where individuals wrote their thoughts about ideal netiquette on a red paper, and cut in a circular shape with the letter ‘e’ written on it. Afterwards, people hung those papers on a tree as if they were the fruits on the tree.
Besides the aforementioned, many more solutions are currently being discussed. A feasible yet controversial solution is adopting a real-name system. The definitive shortcoming of real-name system is that when practiced, the border between the offline and the online world is likely to be blurred. Even more so, opinions as to what extent the real-name system should be applied vary among people. A majority of people agree with the fact that ordinary citizens will no longer be able to state their opinions freely if their names are revealed. In contrast, Park Hyuk-muk states, “There are various forms of the real-name system. Although I agree with the opinion that nicknames should at least be allowed on the Internet, I think admission procedures used by most of the portal sites needs to be fortified. Just checking one’s name and social security number is insufficient in today’s world. More information about the member-to-be must be required so that companies will face no difficulties in immediately catching the Akpler, if any trouble occurs.”
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| Hwang Sang-min | ||
Practical short and long-term solutions
No matter how many people insist that “netizens” should try to exterminate Akplers, many reasons make it almost impossible to do so. As mentioned before, “There is no clear standard when defining both Akple and Akpler. Every reply can become an Akple when looking at it from a different point of view, and everybody can be an Akpler when they once decide to write and post the Akple without having a reason,” insists Whang Sang-min (Prof., Dept. of Psych.). For example, if there was a reply saying “good job,” it would not be a problem when it is used as a reaction to the article about a victory in the Olympics. On the other hand, in some articles such as informing somebody’s death, that reply could be considered as an Akple by many “netizens” just as in the case of comedian Kim Hyung-eun who had received some Akples after her death.
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| Park Hyuk-muk | ||
Moreover, Park Hyuk-muk mentions, “It is not widely known that writing replies that libel others, is regarded to be and can be punished as a theft.” This lack of recognition originates from the social atmosphere where people find it less troublesome to write harsh comments on the Internet compared to real world comments. It can be said that as long as this social atmosphere does not change, Akplers will still remain no matter how much time passes.
Furthermore, the police department does not have adequate number of policemen who can concentrate on investigating Akple cases as well as trying to arrest and punish Akplers. It may seem so obvious that the police department should establish a division that can take complete charge of both Akples and Akplers. It is, however, too complicated to examine every single Akple case, since the number of Akple cases amounted to more than 200,000 in 2006 alone (according to the data from KISCOM).
Then what can the ordinary “netizens” do to reduce the amount of Akples? There are both short-term and long-term solutions to this problem. “As for the short-term solutions, people can just ignore Akplers. As most of them do that in order to get attention from other people, simply ignoring them should make them lose interest in doing it,” comments Yoo Hee-jeong.
Portal websites and the judicial bench can also strengthen their restraints when dealing with Akples. Kim Myoung-ho claims, “Some people are now trying to reduce the amount of Akples posted on the Internet, but the problem is that the portal websites are not striving hard enough. Despite our reporting of some Akples, our endeavors are often ignored. I think they should work harder.”
These short-term solutions, however, cannot solve the fundamental problem. The number of policemen who can mainly concentrate on Akple cases, including not only celebrities’ but also ordinary people’s, should be supplemented. In addition, “Netizen”-education, including campaigns should be operated more widely throughout the country. Through this education program, people will be able to understand that their online society is the same as reality. Once people are educated in this way, they should act at least a little more carefully when expressing their opinions on the Internet,” states Kwon Na-yeon. Stepping further, many professors agree that communication education, starting from early childhood is essential.
Closing notes
After all, the recent Akple turmoil is all about changes in the perception of “netizens.” Although the long-term measures discussed above may seem obscure and unnatural, there can be no amelioration in the overall state of cyberspace unless these fundamental conditions are satisfied. Foremost, “netizens” must make conscious attempts to have more flexible mindsets towards others. People must be open to the opinions of others even if they may differ or disagree. “Netizens” must also be able to recognize the difference between ‘criticism’ and ‘censure.’ They should keep in mind at all times that while criticism deals with the content, while censure has to do with people and can lead to personal attacks. Maintaining primary courtesy, even in cyberspace is never too excessive to be emphasized.
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