By Lee Kyung-min
Many women are vehemently denouncing police for conducting what they deem an “anti-women” investigation, Thursday, after police said they had obtained an arrest warrant for the operator of WOMAD, the online community of a radical feminist group, for disseminating photos and videos of naked men online.
The outcry is expected to fuel the growing anger of women whose repeated demands for “equal accountability for equal crimes” concerning male perpetrators have largely remained unanswered. This culminated in weekend rallies over the past few months to protest a “spy-cam epidemic,” and the government's negligence to seek due accountability. An increasing number of women are expected to participate in the rallies in the coming weeks.
The collective denouncement came after Busan Metropolitan Police Agency said a district court issued an arrest warrant, Sunday, for the operator, whose identity is being withheld, on charges of defamation and abetting dissemination of sexually explicit materials online. The suspect, who opened the website using an overseas server, posted photos of the interiors of male bathhouses in February. Police added that international cooperation with relevant authorities including Interpol was under way to seek the prompt extradition of the operator.
About 50,000 people signed an online petition at Cheong Wa Dae decrying the police for such a “rapid” investigation, which they said was a notable difference in handling cases involving women. “Why do you investigate the WOMAD case with such rigor when you have not done so for Ilbe or other right-wing websites whose content belittles and objectifies women? This is evidence that you do not consider the voices of women as that of human beings,” one petitioner wrote.
“If you try to locate the operator of WOMAD for the said charges, then you must take similar steps to hold operators of male-dominated online communities accountable. Otherwise, you are proving yourself to be a women-hating body.”
Countless photos and videos have been shared on such sites, with the degree of hatred and vitriol unmatched to those shown in women's online community, others wrote.
“It took 17 years to shut down Soranet, where about 80,000 illicitly filmed videos had been shared, and only after a women's group repeatedly demanded the site be removed. And the operator of a women's community is being sought in only days, or weeks? How can you explain this other than police bias?” In 2016, when the operators of Soranet were arrested, the confiscated server had 120 terabytes of stored content. Police said they had earned about 10 billion won over the 17 years.
“We have gathered over the weekend to demand the investigative authorities conduct a fair investigation. The last rally was held less than about a week ago. This incident shows the epitome of misogyny. I do not know how else this could be defined,” said another poster.
The police move is similar to what is widely known as the “Hongik University hidden camera crime,” in which police detained a woman who photographed a nude male model with her cell phone during an art class and shared the content online, less than 10 days after the incident occurred.
The “rapid” apprehension followed a review of her cell phone and tracking her IP address on the internet server and its log records. Police also searched her home and the location where she used a computer to upload the content. A district court issued an arrest warrant for her, agreeing with the the prosecution's claim that she posed a flight risk and could destroy evidence.