Tuesday, October 07, 2008

[JoongAng Ilbo , Opinion, Columns, October 4 2008] [Outlook]Regulating the Internet

Those who want privacy can remain behind closed doors. But they shouldn’t attack other people who are in an open square while they remain in hiding.

Many agree that maligning and groundless rumors in cyberspace were one of the reasons actress Choi Jin-sil committed suicide. But I heard someone disagree saying, “That’s not enough to make someone commit suicide. There must be other reasons.”

But he could only say so because he hasn’t been the victim of cyber terrorism himself. One can truly understand that kind of pain only after firsthand experience. In May, when candlelit vigils were staged every night, I wrote a column about the panic over mad cow disease. I wrote that if it was really possible to get the disease, I would be one of the first to get it because I had lived in the United States and consumed a lot of beef there. The point was that fear about mad cow disease was unreasonably blown up.

I wrote with sincerity and honesty but it was regarded as “a far-fetched column that misled people,” one netizen commented. The column was posted on Web sites frequented by progressives and all kinds of condemnation and criticism poured in.

No comments: