Social media becomes haven for illegal sex, drug trades
Korean netizens searching for sexual content and illegal drugs are flocking to social media sites. Most sites, available through apps that can be easily downloaded, don't require personal information when users sign up, which makes it difficult for law enforcers to keep track of transgressors. / Graphic by Cho Sang-won
By Ko Dong-hwan
Social media sites have brought together many people based on friendship, love and common interests but, according to a lawmaker’s recent finding, some are now among the biggest channels for illegal sex and drug trades in Korea.
Anonymous people are using the sites to distribute sexually explicit videos and photos or links that lead to sex-trading sites.
Other people are buying and selling illegal drugs because law enforcers cannot monitor all trades.
Liberal Korea Party Rep. Min Kyung-wook, a member of the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communication Committee, said the most popular social networking (SNS) site Koreans use for sexual content is Tumblr. It accounted for over 74 percent of 30,200 revision requests from the Korea Communication Standards Commission for SNS posts related to the sex trade and obscene content during the first half of this year, he said Monday.
Some of the material included genital exposure, homosexual intercourse and cartoons depicting sexual acts.
In 2015, Twitter received the most revision requests from the commission for explicit posts, accounting for over 20 percent. The following year, it gave up top spot to Tumblr, which was issued with about 58 percent of 82,000 revision requests. This year, Tumblr is responsible for seven out of 10 warnings.
Facebook, whose algorithm runs each personal account based on the user’s other network information and requires legal names in almost all cases, has a thick net of security to block problem posts.
“More than a billion netizens have personal pages on Facebook and we must make it a safe environment for all,” said Sean Park, Facebook Korea’s policy communication manager. “Using community standards, we screen content not just about sexuality but also about self-molestation, activities linked to terrorism and crimes, narcotics, firearms and ethnic biases.
“Of course there have been attempts to post such ill-purposed content. But our monitoring system operates extensively, receiving reports from users and using our system for screening. Almost as soon as such posts are up, we take them down.”
Drug trades are more complicated and difficult to curb because deals are done more subtly via chatting apps that can be easily downloaded and don’t require the users’ legal names, making it easy for sellers and buyers.
Korean narcotics officers pay keen attention to social media. In 2016, they nabbed 16 cannabis and meth sellers, shut down 129 sites and deleted over 780 SNS posts linked to narcotic sales. But it is almost impossible to rein in all the deals. Customs screening at Korean airports that only depends on report slips filled out by arriving passengers is another loophole that allows drug smuggling.
“As foreigners coming to Korea to work or study have increased, there have been rising cases of narcotics ordered online and delivered inbound through post services using airways,” an official from the Korean prosecutors’ office said.