YouTuber held responsible for ‘unauthorized filming’ of ordinary people… Court: “Compensation of 13 million won is required”

■ Mr. A, in his 70s, had his personal information exposed during an unauthorized live broadcast by a YouTuber.

■ The court said, “The damage caused by YouTube is enormous...there is no justification.”

As the controversy surrounding so-called ‘cyber wreckers’ who create provocative content containing false information and profit from it as an excuse continues, voices calling for stronger legal punishment against them are growing.

On the 29th, Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok ordered Suwon District Prosecutor General Kim Yoo-cheol to receive a report on the status and plans of the ‘Cyber ​​Rekka’ investigation and to strictly respond to the distribution of malicious content, threats, and extortion committed by Cyber ​​Rekka, which inflicts extreme defamation and insults on both celebrities and the general public by inciting hatred for profit-making and commercial purposes, and deprive them of the proceeds of crime.”

In the case of criminal punishment in the cyber racka crime, if you extort money by threatening the other person, you can be charged with blackmail, and if you publicly revealed another person's private life for the purpose of slander, you can be charged with defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act.

Victims may also file separate civil litigation procedures. Compensation is received by claiming compensation for physical and mental damage caused by malicious content.

In fact, a court recently issued a ruling holding YouTubers who filmed videos without their consent liable for damages.

On the 3rd, the Daejeon District Court's Civil Division 13 (Chief Judge Kang Gil-yeon) ruled in favor of the plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking compensation filed by a man in his 70s against two YouTubers, saying, "The defendants must jointly pay 13 million won to the plaintiff."

In 2022, the YouTubers sneaked into the dog shop run by Mr. A, pretending to be customers, and conducted a live broadcast.

During the live broadcast, Mr. A's face, home address, vehicle license plate, and the interior and exterior views of the silk shop were exposed, and the scene of them swearing at Mr. A was also broadcast as is.

They later edited and processed the video and reposted it, and even after the silk shed was demolished, they visited Mr. A's residence again and continued filming without permission, raising donations from viewers.

Mr. A applied for a temporary injunction seeking the deletion of the video and a ban on posting it, and received a decision from the court, but they did not delete the video even after several months.

The court said, “The defendants posted a video containing content insulting and criticizing the plaintiff, claiming that the plaintiff was slaughtering dogs illegally, but there appears to be no evidence to prove that the plaintiff actually slaughtered dogs illegally.”

He also pointed out, “Even if the plaintiff committed an illegal act, beyond reporting it to the competent government office, posting a video on their personal YouTube channel and making insulting and threatening words and actions cannot be considered justified in terms of the means and methods.”

He added, “We took into account the fact that YouTube, due to the nature of the Internet medium, has a large impact, so the damage is serious, and the posting period of the video can be as long as about 1 year and 7 months.”

Acted as legal representative for the plaintiffDaeryun Law Firm (Liuhan) said, “The victim is suffering considerable mental pain due to the defendants’ acts of infringement on portrait rights, insults, and defamation.”saying“It appears that the court also reflected this.”He explained.

In addition,“Recently, as the number of YouTubers has rapidly increased, various damages are occurring due to filming and broadcasting without consent.”saying“In the case of YouTube, once a video is posted, it can be continuously reproduced, so the impact is bound to be large, so there is an urgent need to improve awareness.”He said.

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