By Kim Tae-jong
While Twitter and other social network services were flooded with messages and photos about the Seoul mayoral by-election Wednesday, one of dominating topics was the thin line between legal and illegal election-related messages.
After exercising their right to vote, many people took pictures of themselves in front of polling stations and uploaded the “certification shots” along with messages to encourage others to follow suit.
But some of them may have violated guidelines set by the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission, which drew strong criticism from citizens over their controversial elements.
The commission said ordinary voters are allowed to encourage others to vote, but “well-known” people are banned from posting messages such as “Let’s vote.”
“Posting such photos and messages of voting encouragement online is permitted, but posting them along with comments or actions explicitly and inexplicitly supporting a certain candidate is not,” the commission said.
It said “extraordinary people” are banned from encouraging others to vote even by simply saying, “Let’s vote,” if they are judged to have certain political tendencies.
However, many tweeters and bloggers argued it infringed upon basic human rights and the commission abused its power in favor of the government and the ruling party.
Twitter was full of messages ridiculing the election monitoring committee.
“You know some ‘well-known’ people are banned from saying ‘Let’s vote.’ It’s a really funny guideline. Is it right that we are living in a democratic society?” a tweeter with the ID Nar*** said.
Other people also criticized unclear criteria in the guidelines such as the prevention of pointing or using fingers that can suggest the support for a certain candidate.
“You should be very careful with your fingers. With your thumb up in your photo, you will be punished because you are believed to support candidate No. 1,” a blogger said. “That’s so ridiculous.”
Rep. Chung Dong-young of the main opposition Democratic Party also posted a message on his Twitter account, criticizing the commission’s regulation on the use of the social network services.
“The commission is disturbing the voting process,” he said. “You can do whatever you want. If you get in trouble for the use of the SNS in this election, we’ll help you with legal issues by using our legal support unit.”
To ridicule the guidelines, popular MC Kim Je-dong posted his “certification shot” after hiding half of his face with a cloth and without wearing glasses with the message, “Now, you don’t know who I am, right?”
Despite warnings, a number of citizens and celebrities posted their pictures in front of polling stations with messages of vote encouragement throughout the day.