We hold YouTube responsible for neglecting the illegal and

unethical acts of the Hoverlab(a.k.a. Garosero Yeonguso)

December 28, 2021

The YouTube channel of the Hoverlab continues to expose the private life of Cho Dong-yeon, former co-chair of the Presidential Election Campaign Committee of the Democratic Party of Korea, even after her resignation due to the controversy over her extramarital child. In response to the YouTube channel’s reckless invasion of privacy by disclosing her child’s identity and face, Cho confessed she was a victim of sexual violence and appealed to stop attacking her innocent family. But the situation did not change.

The Hoverlab, led by lawyer Kang Yong-seok and former reporter Kim Se-eui, has indiscriminately revealed the confidential personal information of former co-chair Cho by posting daily videos since it first raised suspicions. In the video on November 30, the name of Cho’s child and the genetic test report were released, and in the video on December 2, the Family Court ruling, which Article 10 of the Family Proceedings Act prohibits reporting, was also revealed. Based on the sources, the YouTube channel continued to broadcast bullying of Cho using raw criticism that could not be written down.

Mainstream media, such as TV Chosun, Chosun Ilbo, Segye Ilbo, Donga Ilbo and JoongAng Ilbo, began to dictate the Hoverlab's claims, and as the scandal spread further, the comments of politicians and critics were also relayed. The controversy over Cho Dong-yeon’s private life clearly shows how dangerous it is for the media to bring private life into the public realm to satisfy the public’s voyeuristic interest, along with the case where a 12-year-old child was asked for genetic testing at the time of “the report on Chae Dong-wook’s extramarital child” in 2013.

Why hasn’t the YouTube channel of the Hoverlab, which has created many victims, been removed?

The Hoverlab, which is most responsible for this tragic situation, has been constantly criticized for its anti-social and unethical broadcasting content since its establishment in 2018. There are countless victims of the channel and its members' malicious insults and false allegations, including the late comedian Park Ji-sun, national volleyball player Kim Yeon-kyung and famous actresses, such as Han Ye-seul, Jeon Ji-hyun and Kim Joon-hee.

The YouTube system is responsible for the channel’s continued success without any sanctions despite its function as pseudo-media and its enormous negative impact on the public. The Hoverlab ranked first in the domestic Super Chat rankings for the week of November 29 to December 5, when it broadcast on former co-chair Cho. The Super Chat revenue from its live broadcasting alone is estimated to be more than 16 million won. YouTube’s negligence on harmful content is contributing to the growth and proliferation of such abusive creators.

YouTube has its own terms of service and community guidelines. There are also separate guidelines for creators to follow when generating advertising revenue. YouTube is implementing a three-strike system, which sends a warning email after the first violation with no restrictions, bans a repeat violator from posting for one to two weeks and shuts down a channel with over three violations in any 90-day probation period. In 2020, 34.7 million videos were deleted according to the YouTube policies, and 1.08 million videos were removed in Korea.

So far, violent far-right channels, such as Euktube, Kim Sang-jin TV, GZSS, Joan of Arc TV2 and Newstown TV, have been removed from YouTube for violating the terms of service and community guidelines. In the United States, six channels advocating white supremacy, including former KKK leader David Duke, were suspended during the 2020 presidential election period. This year, former President Donald Trump’s channel was banned on the charge of disseminating false information in connection with his supporters’ dissatisfaction with the election defeat and their attack on the Capitol.

YouTube must take action against the violation of its guidelines.

However, YouTube has so far not imposed any sanctions on the Hoverlab’s impermissible invasion of privacy and defamation actions. Given its wrongdoing, the channel’s content is no less severe than that of other creators blocked due to their harmful and hateful content inciting violence and hate speech. In particular, the content covering the controversy over Cho Dong-yeon directly falls under ‘violent or dangerous content’ among the five YouTube community guidelines. The videos go against the principle of YouTube saying “we remove content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on any of the following attributes; age, caste, disability, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, nationality, race, immigration status, religion, sex/gender, sexual orientation, victims of a major violent event and their kin, and veteran status.” YouTube, which is aiding and abetting violations of the guidelines by only focusing on increasing its number of views with provocative content, cannot avoid being criticized for neglecting its social responsibility.

On YouTube, a wide variety of content and information is produced and distributed. Although the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) can deliberate on harmful content on YouTube, its authority only allows it to request YouTube to delete or block access to content that is deemed illegal and unethical by the committee. Since YouTube is neither a part of the press nor an internet broadcasting platform regulated by Korean law, its content is neither subject to the Press Arbitration Law nor subject to the review of Internet Election News Deliberation Commission. There is increasing precedent in which criminal penalties are imposed on YouTube content, but it is difficult to make proper and effective regulations immediately. This is why YouTube’s self-censorship following its guidelines is the only realistic alternative for issues that can have serious social consequences.

The German Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) obligates social media networks with 2 million or more registered users to remove content that is clearly illegal within 24 hours after receiving a user complaint. YouTube is responsible for policing and removing flagged content containing hate expressions, political extremism, defamation and insults, sexual references, etc.

The content created and distributed by the Hoverlab, which exposes the private lives of Cho Dong-yeon and her family, is a clear violation of human rights, defamation and hate speech against a political opponent. We demand that YouTube fulfill its social responsibility in Korea by strictly regulating illegal and unethical content at the same level as overseas.

Citizens’ Coalition for Democratic Media

* 해당 서한은 2021년 12월 13일자 성명 <가로세로연구소 방치하는 유튜브에 사회적 책임을 묻는다>의 영문 번역본이며, 구글 코리아·Google LLC·Youtube LLC에도 발송될 예정입니다(참조).