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'Overwhelming': S.Korean families' grief compounded by online abuse
Experts say the government is worried the disaster could hurt the administration. Seoul's last conservative government lost power in part due to its mishandling of the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster, which killed more than 300.
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In this photo taken on April 5, 2023, Lee Jong-chul (with microphone), whose 24-year-old son Lee Ji-han was killed during a Halloween crowd crush in October last year, attends a rally with other families of victims and supporters near the alleyway where the disaster took place in the popular Itaewon district of Seoul. Families of the Itaewon victims want answers about why authorities failed to prevent the catastrophe despite clear warning signs, with some families forming a group “to understand what really happened and to hold those officials responsible.“ But the internet interpreted their efforts to organise as an attack on the government, with right-wing trolls launching a coordinated counter-attack, accusing the families of being profiteers out for compensation, or anti-government forces.
(AFP /Anthony Wallace )
F
irst, he lost his child in Seoul's Halloween crowd crush. Then came a torrent of online abuse, upending his family's once-private life and making him an internet-wide figure of mockery.
In October, Lee Jong-chul's 24-year-old son was among more than 150 people killed in the disaster in the city's popular Itaewon district. Grief-stricken, he spoke to media, pleading with South Korean politicians to take action.
Then, as has happened after incidents from the Sandy Hook mass shooting to the disappearance of British woman Nicola Bulley, an internet mob formed: Lee and his family's personal tragedy was mocked, belittled and misrepresented online.
From photos doctored to show Lee laughing after being offered compensation to attempts to link him to North Korea -- two viral posts debunked by AFP digital verification reporters -- he and his family have become a virtual punching bag on Korean-language forums.
"It's unspeakable what some of these comments say," said Lee's daughter Ga-young, adding that the sheer volume of abuse was "overwhelming", with any news report on them attracting hundreds of comments, almost exclusively negative, in minutes.
At their apartment in Goyang city just outside Seoul, the family's late son Lee Ji-han's bedroom has not been touched since he last walked out on October 29, 2022. His clothes still hang on the door where he left them, the book he was reading lies on his bed.
"That day changed our lives forever," his mother Cho Mi-eun told AFP, saying she still listens to old voicemail messages just to hear her son's voice.
