Choi Sin Jil, one of South Korea's most popular female actresses, recently committed suicide after suffering depression. Her illness was brought on by endless online slander and rumor mongering. South Korean police promise to crack down on anonymous online gossip, sending over 900 officers to the web to suss out the bullies. But is it even possible, or yet another round of Internet "whack-a-mole"?
Some of this problem is likely cultural as Choi was maligned just because she was a single mother, following a nasty and public divorce with a professional baseball player. Rumors that she was a loan shark, pressuring someone for repayment may have been what pushed her to such desperate measures.
Have you ever heard about law enforcement going after online rumors in the US? Possibly it happens for public figures, but it's very, very difficult to get anyone to listen to the gripes of a regular citizen. Fortunately, we have protection in this country for what we write online, but certainly it's difficult to defend the sort of nasty name-calling and outright lies that get spread on the Internet, whether you are famous or just a regular person. We just need to be cautious about any form of online comment suppression that erupts in response to tragedies like this one.