In October, a 2014 Facebook post by Chung Yoo-ra, the daughter of President Park Geun-hye’s now infamous friend Choi Soon-sil, drew public ire.

“Blame your own parents if they don’t have the ability. Don’t point fingers at us if your parents don’t have what it takes. Money is also a form of ability,” it read, stoking public anger over what is now being called the Choi Soon-sil scandal.

Choi, a friend of the president for some 40 years, is accused of meddling in state affairs, extorting money from companies and pulling strings to get her daughter special favors in sports and educational. 

While Chung’s real Facebook account has since been deleted, a number of parody accounts on social media assuming the identities of Chung Yoo-ra and Choi Soon-sil have been created. Some of them have gone viral.
Thousands of internet users have shared fake posts and photos from these accounts, lauding them for their satirical value.

Kim Jin, 29, searched for Chung Yoo-ra’s name on Facebook and sent her a friend request out of curiosity. He said he finds the phenomenon a new way of expression.

“Choi and Chung are the hottest figures in South Korea’s history right now. Although I know that I’m being fooled by those fake accounts, the fact that I can directly comment on a public enemy makes me feel better and also helps me relieve stress,” said Kim.

On one of the Facebook accounts under the name of Choi Soon-sil, the account shows Choi’s portrait as the profile photo. For the cover photo, it was set to a photo taken in 1979 when Choi was spotted escorting President Park at a political event for university students at Hanyang University in Seoul.

Under that 1979 photo, some angry online users left insulting comments that read: “Is this when you thought you could control this country?” “You should disappear from this planet” and “You and your daughter Chung should spend your entire life in prison,” among others.
People liked the post that read “I’m sorry for what I did” over 100,000 times, which was apparently written by a fake account operator under Choi’s name.

Choi Jin-bong, professor of media communications at SungKongHoe University, said, “while debates are now actively taking place on online platforms such as social media, many online users are relieving their stress and expressing their opinions or feelings of loss toward parody accounts of those figures.”

“However, there are some issues regarding illegal use of someone’s name, which may lead to a libel suit for defamation,” he added.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)