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| Scenes from "Hellper 2 ― Killberos," an online comic published on Naver since 2011 by SSAK, which came under fire for including misogynistic content. Screen capture from Naver |
By Park Ji-won
As Korean webcomics boom in popularity, discussions about the boundaries of freedom of expression are taking center stage as the industry debates the issue of controversial content criticized as misogynistic, violent and abusive.
Recent episodes of "Hellper 2 ― Killberos," a webtoon serialized on Naver since 2011 and created by an artist who goes by the name SSAK, came under fire for including violent and misogynistic content.
The 247th episode released on Sept. 9, depicts an elderly woman who is kidnapped, tied up naked and injected eight times. In addition to this episode, the comics show various abusive scenes, including one in which male characters discuss ways to rape minors and a scene where a female middle school student is sexually harassed.
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| A scene, left, from Kian84's "Bokhak Wang" shows a female intern cracking open shellfish to impress her male boss in the hope she'll be hired as a full-time employee. Another scene, right, is an edited version created as the first was considered to be inappropriate. Screen capture from Naver |
Last month, the work of webcomic artist Kim Hee-min, who releases his comics under the pseudonym Kian84, came under fire for including misogynic expressions in his work "Bokhak Wang." In a recent issue of the comic on Naver in August, Kim showed intern Bong Ji-eun being hired as a full-time worker at a conglomerate after her internship, despite her sloppy behavior and incompetence, implying that she was hired after she slept with her boss. Last year, the webcomic artist repeatedly came under fire for belittling people with disabilities and immigrant workers in Korea.
Boycotts and criticism of the webcomics and Naver intensified. When Kian84 came under fire for his work, some activists took to the streets in front of Naver, criticizing the search engine for giving writers rights to promote "hatred" by letting them draw whatever they want and calling for the suspension of Kian84's series. Some internet users on "Hellper 2 ― Killberos"' fan websites, also criticized the violent imagery. A Korean hashtag that translates to "stop misogyny in webtoons" spread on Twitter.
As the criticism continues, SSAK and Naver released statements, respectively, apologizing over the offending works and pledging to suspend SSAK's series temporarily.
SSAK wrote, "As someone who loves comics, thinking that the range of expressions in the medium is way more limited than other content, I tried hard to expand the boundaries of expression. But it ended up creating a backlash and I apologize to webcomic lovers and writers."
Naver released a statement saying, "We apologize for failing to closely handle the level of expression in comics. We created concerns because of the sensational expressions in the work."
At this point in time there are no organizations or laws tasked with overseeing the content in online comics. Based on a 2012 MOU between the Korea Communications Standards Commission and the Korea Cartoonist Association, the association's committee can issue five advisories on comics raising concerns include the ceasing of an offending publication and the amendment of offending content.
Naver has remained passive in involving itself in the issue of offensive webcomic content and has referred to any such involvement as censorship.
"Censorship was conducted by the government in the past. But it is now carried out by Korean citizens and readers, which is very problematic because it means it is the era of the 'dictatorship of Korean citizens,'" Joo Ho-min, writer of famous comics "Along with the Gods" said during his live broadcast on Aug. 18. One day after, he apologized for saying "Korean citizens' dictatorship'" after it made headlines. The Webtoon Association released a statement over the Kian84 controversy in August that says "We think the calls from some organizations to stop the publication of Kian84's work could become the beginning of censorship… We don't agree with the idea of certain ideologies setting boundaries on creativity and eliminating existing works."
Experts point out that the current system is not satisfying some readers' ethical standards as webcomics are one of the main sources of online traffic of Naver's Korean search engine.
"The reason why the platform didn't involve itself in the situation is that webcomics play a big role in creating online traffic. So, the search engines naturally release the comics without editing. Now it is the time for the platform to learn the public's ethical standards," Kim Jung-young, professor of Chungkang College of Cultural Industries, said in an interview with YTN.
