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| Son Jong-woo, who operated "Welcome to Video," one of the world's largest child porn sites, leaves the Seoul Detention Center at Uiwang in Gyeonggi Province, Monday, after the Seoul High Court rejected a extradition request for him. Yonhap |
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| The operator of "Digital Prison" has revealed the identities of Son ― and the judges who released him ― among other criminals and suspects in some of Korea's most notorious cases. Screengrab of "Digital Prison" |
By Jung Min-ho
The unidentified operator says the purpose of creating the site was to "punish the criminals with the punishment they would fear the most ― exposing their identities."
The site, which opened a few months ago, came into the spotlight after it disclosed the photos, names and other personal information of Son, the operator of "Welcome to Video," among other convicts and suspects in some of Korea's most notorious cases.
Son was arrested in March 2018 for operating the child porn site from June 2015 until then. After completing an 18-month sentence in April, he was returned to custody following an extradition request by the U.S. Justice Department. But in a widely monitored decision, the Seoul High Court rejected it, saying keeping him here would help efforts to track down the users of his site.
"I'm frustrated by our justice system's leniency toward vicious criminals," the "Digital Prison" operator writes on the site. "Because of the leniency, criminals become worse."
The operator says the "encrypted, bulletproof server" is based somewhere in Eastern Europe.
"Freedom of speech is 100 percent guaranteed here," the operator writes. "So enjoy your freedom of speech and feel free to leave your comments."
The taekwondo athlete, who was convicted with two others last month of killing a man at a Seoul nightclub, and the alleged operators and members of "Nth rooms" and other porn channels on Telegram are among the others whose identities have been revealed.
Speaking to local broadcaster JTBC Tuesday, the site operator said he became furious when he found out that his cousin was one of the victims of the Nth room case. He said he would never back down.
The Korea Communications Standards Commission, the country's internet censorship body, said Thursday that it has received more than 10 complaints about the site. It is expected to review the complaints before deciding whether blocking the site is necessary.
Separately, police are looking into whether the site violates the country's cyber defamation law, which states "a person who commits defamation of another person by disclosing a fact to the public through an information and communications network" can be prosecuted.
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