Letter to the NHN Corporation

The letter below is concerned with a xenophobic Korean group called "The Citizen's Group for Upright English Education", but which is better known as the "Citizen's Movement to Expel Illegal Teachers of Foreign Languages" or "Anti-English Spectrum", which for almost five years has worked successfully with news media to portray foreign English teachers in Korea as unqualified, morally corrupt, drug-addicted, AIDS-carrying child molesters. Instead of being seen as a xenophobic fringe group, they were invited to an immigration policy meeting held by the Ministry of Justice in October 2007 which made it necessary for foreigners wanting to teach English in Korea to submit criminal record checks and drug and HIV tests. The latter two tests are not required by Korean teachers, and were made mandatory for not only new applicants, but even for teachers who had been working in Korea for years.

Mr. Philip Yun, CEO
NHN USA Corporation
3353 Michelson Drive
Irvine, California, 92612

November 6, 2009

Dear Mr. Yun:

This letter is to alert you to an “anti-foreigner” racial hate group that is operating on your corporation’s popular internet forum: Naver cafe. The cafe’s URL is http://cafe.naver.com/englishspectrum.cafe. The group refers to itself as “Anti-English Spectrum” and has over 17,000 members.

The NHN Corporation has made great strides since incorporating Naver.com in 1999 and launching the search portal “Naver.” Naver.com has grown to be the fifth most used search engine in the world and the Naver name has gone global with affiliates in Japan, the US and China. It is clear that NHN values its international image and promotes diversity in its workforce. For example, an NHN recruitment banner displayed on your nhnusainc.com website entitled “Come and join the NHN USA Family!” shows the NHN “family” as an interracial family. The image is consistent with NHN’s transnational vision. Your nhncorp.com site explains that in 2006, both of NHN’s original founders – Mr. Kim Beom-Su and Mr. Moon Tae-Sik – decided to relocate to the United States to learn the US market and in the process were able to gain valuable experience by living abroad.

Like NHN USA, I am a resident of Irvine. In fact, my house is only three miles from the NHN USA Headquarters. I take pride in knowing that NHN USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Korean NHN Corporation, has been able to find a home here. I am proud of Irvine, California as a place where a person can come, from as far away as Korea, and start a new company or even a new life. I am especially proud, for example, of our city’s most prominent Korean immigrant Sukhee Kang who raised a family here, had a successful professional career and was able to go on to become the mayor of our city. We live in an era where such things are possible if only our society is open enough to allow them.

The Korean expression global chibanghwa shidae (글로벌 지방화 시대) perfectly captures the “glocalization” era concept that has global players like NHN living right down the street – a part of our neighborhood and community. Irvine is a wonderfully “glocal” place and as Ph.D student in International Relations at the University of California, Irvine I plan to see that it stays that way.

In Korea, however, while the expression and the concept exist, the actual practice has had trouble taking root. The globalization era has brought new people to Korea, and while Koreans are often open to a personal connection that comes in the form of a friend or a new business partner or even a spouse, unfortunately there are groups like Anti-English Spectrum working to crush such connections with hatred and fear before they can grow into something lasting and local. 

Considering NHN’s obvious commitment to being an international and diverse corporation, it is very difficult to understand how NHN can offer its services as a communications network to a racial hate group.

1. Anti-English Spectrum’s Cafe Violates Korean Law and Naver Cafe’s Operating Principles

The Anti-English Spectrum group hosts “promotional posters” that promote racial hatred by calling foreigners “Black pig[s],” and telling the Korean public that foreigners have “AIDS,” engage in “sexual molestation” and are “targeting children.” This group’s highly defamatory statements violate Article Ga-4 (Defamatory Posts) of Naver cafe’s terms of service agreement and rise to the level of violations of the Korean Criminal Code [Defamation (Article 307), Defamation through Public Materials (Article 309), Insult (Article 311)]. Printing material saying that certain individuals have AIDS and are intending to sexually molest children is an extremely serious offense. Naver must be made aware that such materials are being distributed with the Naver name and website on them.

Another “promotional poster” with the Naver name on it was distributed in the streets of Seoul and told the public that “we look coldly upon Southeast Asian workers, yet we are much too generous and tolerant of blue-eyed foreigners…” Advocating intolerance just because someone has “blue-eyes” is advocating racial intolerance. Article 4 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), which the Republic of Korea has declared “has the same authority of domestic law,” says that “promot[ing] racial hatred and discrimination in any form,” such as with the use of “promotional posters,” is a prohibited act. Naver should be aware that by hosting these posters promoting racial hatred and discrimination, Naver is participating in “assistance to racist activities” under Article 4(a) of the ICERD, an offense that Korea has declared “punishable by law”. Naver’s role has been crucial to the organization; it provides the network for the group to be able to “promote racial hatred and discrimination”. But also of crucial importance, Naver’s good name has lent this hate group the semblance of legitimacy.

2. The Purpose of Anti-English Spectrum Cafe is to Promote Racial Hatred and Discrimination, Not to Improve the Education System in Korea

Anti-English Spectrum has tried to pass itself off as a citizens group dedicated to ensuring “upright” English education but the group’s activities and critique (focused only on non-Korean teachers) make the group’s agenda of racial hatred very clear. Because of the group’s race-based mandate, it has not addressed several major instances of problematic Korean teachers, even where these teachers have directly threatened the “uprightness” of English education, which this group has pledged to defend. In 2006, for example, when an arrest warrant was issued for a Korean teacher accused of sexually molesting children at the Ansan English Village the group took no interest. [Links: Korean, English]

The group has repeatedly claimed that foreign teachers with criminal histories of sexual assault are threatening Korean children because lax screening mechanisms allow them to work in the Korean education system. But when this precise scenario occurred in March of this year and a teacher with several previous convictions for sexual assault against minors was again arrested for raping a teen, the group was unconcerned because the teacher was Korean [Links: Korean, English 1,2]. Even though the incident sparked social outcry and serious discussion over a flawed educational system that failed to exclude previously convicted sex offenders from the classroom, this group took no interest because the teacher was Korean. The group’s indifference to attacks on the very children it pledges to defend makes clear that their alleged interest in protecting children from predator teachers is merely a front for promoting racial hatred of non-Korean foreigners.

The group is indifferent to the abuses of teachers who are Korean nationals but also – consistent with their racist agenda – the group is indifferent to the abuses of foreign teachers if only those foreigners are ethnic Koreans. There are several examples. In 2006, a Korean-American teacher was dismissed from Seongnam English Town after being accused of sexual molestation by a female elementary school student, but the group took no interest [Links: Korean 1,2, English 1,2]. Also in 2006, the group was completely indifferent when several Korean Americans gang members with criminal records for theft, drugs, and illegal weapons were caught working illegally as English teachers in Korea. They used fraudulent diplomas and their ability to speak English as native speakers to get jobs in Korea as English teachers. News reports explained that while in Korea one of them ran a fake diploma operation, while another worked as an illegal drug dealer. While these individuals are exactly the type of “illegal low-quality foreign English teachers” this group has dedicated itself to expelling from the country, they were of no concern to this organization because they are members of the Korean race. In 2008, foreign English teacher David Nam was extradited to the US on charges of murder. Nam had fled the US as a fugitive and worked as an English teacher of children in Korea – again clearly within the purview of the group’s mission statement – but again the group was indifferent because Nam was of the Korean race.

3. The Activities, Content, and Purpose of the Anti-English Spectrum Cafe Are Clearly Prohibited Under the Naver Cafe Terms of Service Agreement

While Naver should protect its users’ rights to speak freely in a robust and open environment where controversial ideas are expressed and even offensive language is used, it is clear that racial hatred and discrimination must not be tolerated. Accordingly, Article Ga-4 of Naver cafe’s terms of service agreement makes clear that a cafe created with the intention of defaming a particular group is prohibited and Article Ga-6 calls for “immediate closure” in such an instance.

Facebook, Inc.’s recent “unplugging” of a xenophobic Australian hate group called “I Hate Muslims in Oz” provides a good example of an internet social network considering the free speech rights of users but taking a strong stand against xenophobia and racial hatred by refusing to be host to such content [Links: 1,2]. The Australian “I Hate Muslims in Oz” group was shut down by Facebook because of hateful statements. But in the case of “Anti-English Spectrum,” the group goes far beyond statements of hatred – it takes action as a vigilante organization. The cafe.naver.com website is used to store information and photographs of foreigners who are being stalked by the group. As the cafe manager explained in the Korea Times, “Sometimes we stay up at night tracking and watching foreign nationals.” The website contains photographs of foreigners with their faces defiled or their eyes scratched out.

The Anti-English Spectrum group has also been responsible for hate speech that suggests a conspiracy by foreigners to intentionally infect the Korean population with AIDS. A post by the group’s cafe manager claims to relate “the truth behind the rumors circulating around Itaewon regarding the ‘AIDS horror story’ . . . that infected foreigners are indiscriminately spreading the virus.” “It is not yet known,” explains the cafe manager’s post, “whether a foreign AIDS-infected peoples’ organization is responsible for inciting these people, or whether it is the infected foreigners within Korea just working amongst themselves. The only truth known from the rumor is that these people are spreading AIDS in order make their existence known.” Such behavior by a Naver cafe manager is a shameful breach of the duties and responsibilities under Naver’s cafe’s rules of etiquette, section 1(2).

AIDS organizations have already condemned the group’s behavior for making these statements, but Naver has yet to take any action. In fact, all of the posts and material mentioned (and additional material promoting racial hatred and discrimination) are still at http://cafe.naver.com/englishspectrum.cafe.

As a strong believer in the principles of free speech, I have emphasized that Naver should protect its users’ rights to speak freely in a robust and open environment where controversial ideas are expressed and even offensive language is used, but even free speech has its limits. The famous quote by American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. cited the world over to illustrate those limits explains that even “the most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic” [Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919)]. But Anti-English Spectrum’s false messages of AIDS-infected foreigners seeking to harm the Korean public, broadcast to thousands through its Naver cafe, hope to cause exactly such a panic and in fact have succeeded in doing so.

4. As the Leading International Korean Internet Company, NHN Should Take a Stand Against Xenophobia, Racial Hatred and Discrimination

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, a true international Korean leader, recently gave a speech at a conference on “Cyberhate.” The Secretary General pointed out that while “[t]he Internet has brought enormous good to our world . . . [t]here are those who use information technology to reinforce stereotypes, to spread misinformation and to propagate hate.” Anti-English Spectrum is exactly the type of group the Secretary General is referring to. By reinforcing existing stereotypes of foreigners as immoral and dangerous and spreading false rumors of a conspiracy to infect Koreans with AIDS, the group is fulfilling its mission of propagating hate.

The Secretary General noted that the World Summit on the Information Society’s Geneva Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action calls for “preventive action against abuse of information and communications technology for acts motivated by racism, xenophobia and related intolerance” and said that the “Internet industry can help ensure that hate speech does not proliferate online.” NHN should heed the Secretary General’s advice to help stop the hate speech from the Anti-English Spectrum group.

Like the Secretary General, the NHN Corporation is a Korean leader with an international mind-set. NHN has just launched its Naver search portal in Japan and has global ambitions. But clearly, if NHN hopes to win the trust and support of the global community it needs to show its commitment to caring about the global community. Hosting a hate group that targets, stalks and defames foreigners is inconsistent with such a commitment and inconsistent with Naver’s identity in the international community.

The Anti-English Spectrum’s mission statement on their Naver cafe website explains that the group was born of an “overflowing anger” with foreigners; and the group speaks of their mission as akin to “taking up arms and fighting in a war” [in English here]. This message of hatred and violence is totally inconsistent with the image of Naver cafe as “a warm place where people gather,” as described on Naver cafe service rules webpage. NHN’s website says that Naver’s goal is “[c]reating the foundation of a new culture” and that “mutual understanding creates a new culture.” Anti-English Spectrum’s mission of targeting individuals by race and expelling them from the country works directly against Naver’s goals of “mutual understanding” and the creation of a “new culture.”

NHN Corp. should take a stand against racism, xenophobia and the proliferation of hate speech that only serves to tarnish Naver’s good name and reputation. Toward such an end I strongly suggest that Naver:

• Remove content that claims foreigners are targeting Korean children in order to sexually molest them.

• Remove content that spreads rumors of foreigners seeking to infect Koreans with AIDS or other diseases.

• Remove content that contains racially derogatory images and messages that promote racial hatred and discrimination such as the group’s many “promotional posters.”

• Remove content that profiles, targets and stigmatizes individuals on the basis of race and nationality in order to expose them to greater suspicion.

• Remove content that involves vigilante activities such as the tracking or stalking of any persons, whether Koreans or foreigners.

• Remove content that targets interracial couples and seeks to stigmatize and degrade Koreans for having any kind of relationships with foreigners.

Thank you for your attention in reading.

Sincerely,

Andrea Vandom