Instagram Removes “Defeat Communism” Posting, CIO Collects on Shinsegae Vice Chair Chung Yong-jin’s Electronic Communications

2022-1-9, Tara O

Instagram removed a post by Chung Yong-jin (정용진), vice chairman of Shinsegae Group, which owns Shinsegae department stores and eMart, early this year.  On January 5, 2022, Chung posted an abbreviated form of “Defeat Communism” (멸공) (MyeolGong), which Instagram stated was a violation of its guideline on physical violence and incitement after it removed his post.  It also warned him not to do it again or risk even more censorship activities that are permanent.

Chung then posted on Instagram, stating that his posting was removed, and asked why was it considered physical violence and incitement.  He ended the post by stating “I don’t like communism.”  The censorship became controversial, generating a lot of discussions online and media reporting.  Hashtag MyeolGong (#멸공) also became trendy.  Instagram then restored his posting and admitted its mistake, blaming a system error.

On November 15 and 23, both in 2021, Chung posted “I don’t’ like GongSanDang.”  GongSanDang (공산당) technically translates as communist party, but in South Korea, it also means communism or communists, although there are separate words for them.  In other words, the term GongSanDang encompasses not only the communist party, but also the ideology of communism and those who adhere to the ideology.  The word also conjures up North Korea, so it also means communists/communism/communist party related to North Korea.  The Korean Workers’ Party is a communist party in North Korea, and he made it clear he was talking about North Korea in his further postings, including a post of yet another launching of missiles by North Korea soon after the New Year began.

Shortly after this effort to censor, it was discovered that the Moon administration’s Corruption Investigation Office for High Ranking Officials (CIO) / Gongsoocheo—one created supposedly to investigate “high ranking officials,” collected his electronic communications information, including his name, national identification number, address, and content, on June 9 and November 8, 2021.  Chung demanded to know why he was monitored, since he is not under any investigation, in any trials, or on parole. 

June 9, 2021 was the first confirmed collection of Chung’s communications by CIO.  Starting late May 2021, Chung began to post “sorry and thank you” multiple times on Instagram while showing pictures of lobsters and other seafood dishes. “Sorry” and “Thank you” were exactly what President Moon Jae-in wrote in the log book when he visited the Sewol Ferry event on March 10, 2017, which was soon after the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.

“Hey kids, you were the starlight of the candlelight (demonstration) grounds.  Your souls have become 10 million candle lights.  Sorry.  Thank you.”

The false narrative of the “missing 7 hours during the Sewol Ferry sinking” greatly damaged Park’s image and, along with the false “tablet PC” story, helped incite the public to attend the candlelight protests, demanding she step down, and later, be impeached.  This brought about the Moon administration, which claimed the “mandate of the candle lights” as it swiftly pursed policies that negatively impacted freedom, the rule of law, national security, and the economy.

Moon’s “Sorry. Thank you” phrase led to a public backlash, with many asking why Moon was thanking them.  Thus, the question arose whether the CIO monitored Chung’s communications on his phone, because they saw Chung’s use of “sorry and thank you” as a criticism of Moon.

CIO’s second confirmed surveillance of Chung’s electronic communications was on November 8, 2021.  Starting November, Chung wrote “I don’t like communism (/communists/communist party)” and “#DefeatCommunism” (#멸공) often.  It appears both the CIO and Instagram did not like his statements.

Additionally, CIO is overstepping its role in collecting on Chung, who is not a high-ranking government official, but a private businessman.  [As of January 7, 2022, it has been confirmed that CIO monitored electronic communications of about 170 journalists (including those working for foreign media) and their families, scholars, college students, and YouTubers.  None of these people mentioned are “high ranking officials” of the government.  For more on CIO spying on its citizens, see here.

According to the Freedom House Index, South Korea’s Freedom Index is 83/100, a rather high mark, despite persistent censorship.  In addition to the above, relatively recent cases are the imprisonment of two young YouTubers:  Choi Tae-woon (최태운) for 2 years in prison for defamation and Koo Ja-woong (구자웅) for 6 months in prison for defamation.

Assault on freedom of expression continues.