Twitch streamer, volleyball player found dead in South Korea after cyberbullying
- Professional volleyball player Kim In-hyeok, 28, had been bullied over his appearance, rumours about his sexuality, and claims he had appeared in pornography
- Separately, Cho Jang-mi, 27, also known as the Twitch streamer BJ Jammi, had been accused of being a ‘feminist’ by users from male-dominant online communities
By Lee Hae-rin
Cyberbullying in South Korea has yet again cut lives short, with an athlete and a Twitch streamer both found dead in separate incidents recently.
Kim In-hyeok, 28, a professional volleyball player with the Daejeon Samsung Fire Bluefangs, was found dead at his home in Suwon, Gyeonggi province, on Friday. Police concluded that there was no evidence of foul play.
Kim had vented about psychological damage from internet trolling via social media since 2021. He wrote: “I thought I had better ignore decade-long misunderstandings around me, but I am tired of it. Please stop. The malicious comments have harassed me for years – I can’t stand it any more.”
He was referring to criticisms of his appearance, as well as rumours about his sexuality and claims that he appeared in pornography that have mushroomed on the internet.
Cho Jang-mi, 27, also known as BJ Jammi, a Twitch streamer with online creator network Dia TV, owned by South Korean entertainment giant CJ E&M, was also found dead recently. She had been reeling from the trauma of internet trolling, according to a member of her family who spoke on Sunday.
A bereaved family member who identified himself as Cho’s uncle wrote on her Twitch page on Saturday: “Jang-mi has suffered serious depression from malicious comments and rumours, which led her to suicide.”
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The family would take legal action against those responsible for the spread of rumours and misinformation about Cho, he wrote.
Cho started on Twitch as a game-streaming creator in 2019 and had over 290,000 subscribers on Twitch and YouTube combined. She had been accused of being a “feminist” by internet users from male-dominant online communities such as DC Inside and FM Korea and suffered extreme emotional distress from cyberbullying.
In May 2020, Cho said her mother, who helped her manage the comments section, took her own life because of the bombardment of malicious comments, and appealed to internet users to stop the vicious insults.
Their deaths saddened internet users. “The vicious comments killed people, please stop,” one wrote. Another wrote: “All these haters are responsible for their deaths and deserve punishment.”
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According to South Korea’s information network law, malicious commentators could be subject to up to three years in jail or fines of up to 30 million won (US$25,000) for defamation. In addition, the law allows for up to seven years in jail and fines up to 50 million won for contempt – the act of defaming someone directly by saying something insulting to them.
According to a police report obtained by lawmaker Han Byung-do of the Democratic Party of Korea in October 2021, over 75,000 cases of cyber defamation had been reported over the previous five years, but only 43 suspects had been detained.
Research by Brigham Young University in the United States published in The Journal of Social Media and Society in June 2021 found that “individuals with dark triad personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) combined with Schadenfreude – a German word meaning that one derives pleasure from another’s misfortune – were more likely to demonstrate trolling behaviours.”
