Posts Tagged ‘2ch’

2-channelers respond to Korean cyber attacks by donating money to Chile earthquake victims

“Patriotic” South Korean netizens are apparently continuing their cyber attacks on 2-channel, Japan’s most popular web forum site. The initial 2-channel response to the attacks was a cyber attack on the website of the ultranationalist group VANK, with some success in denying users access to the site.

A new wave of Korean attacks is supposedly being planned, but some 2-channelers are calling on their comrades to take the high road and respond by helping victims of the recent earthquake in Chile:

Weirdo, a regular commenter on this site, has reported on how some 2-channelers are organizing a more appropriate response to the Korean DDoS attacks.

2ch is “retaliating” to the attack from south Koreans by clicking to donate to Chile.

韓国人
「ロシアで
韓国人が殺されたので
日本に報復ために
アメリカのサーバーを落とした」

日本
「韓国の攻撃により
日本　2chの
アメリカサーバーが落ちたので報復のため
チリに募金する」

Korea
“A Korean was killed in Russia
To get revenge on the Japanese
they attack an American server”

Japan:
“Koreans take down Japanese site 2ch
American server is down, to get revenge
they donate to Chile”

Some of the sites users are being directed to have sponsors that will donate food for every person who clicks a button on the organization’s homepage. They are also being encouraged to donate money themselves. It is unclear just how many people are participating in the donation campaign or how much money has been donated, but the topic seems popular on 2-channel and hundreds of messages have been posted about it. Someone has set up a wiki about the campaign here.

—
Related article- Just to be clear, there are South Korean media outlets that are denouncing the attacks. The JoongAng Ilbo has a good editorial about the issue:

Some Web postings by Japanese youths can be extreme. But an organized cyber attack on a Web site to punish obnoxious postings by individuals cannot be justified by any account. Critics say their act is tantamount to a hacking crime. Some Korean netizens recently went as far as hunting down the referee that disqualified the Korean women’s short-track speed skating relay team in the recent Vancouver Olympic Games and released his personal details on the Internet.

Being outraged by the referee who allegedly made repeated unfair judgements against Korean skaters is one thing, but exposing information like his phone number and e-mail address is a serious infringement of privacy.

Young Korean athletes have been lauded by the world audience for their perseverance and passion during the Winter Olympic Games. Our young online population should also pass beyond the infantile fighting stage and instead set an example for a mature Internet society in the online community.

—

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Anger over Mainichi WaiWai column continues…

Last month, Japanese bloggers and 2-channelers scored a major victory by bringing public attention upon Mainichi’s WaiWai column, a popular section of Mainichi’s English language website that reported on some of the wildest and most perverted stories from Japan’s weekly tabloid magazines. Mainichi’s English language WaiWai column has since been discontinued and the company has apologized and punished employees that were deemed responsible for the column.

Many of those that had called and e-mailed complaints to Mainichi about the WaiWai column were probably satisfied with the result. However, some don’t think it’s enough. Blogs that called for the end of Mainichi’s WaiWai column are continuing their attacks on the paper and demanding that individual authors be outed and punished for writing WaiWai pieces.

There are also videos popping up on YouTube about the issue, such as this one that calls for a hanging of some sort (its description specifically names Ryan Connell as the author of WaiWai):

I also came across this blog post about a protest held yesterday. They include videos of the demonstration:

The man talking on the loudspeaker expresses anger over the “perverted” [hentai] column on Mainichi’s English site. Towards the beginning of his speech he implies that the disinformation being spread by Mainichi’s English website has caused crimes against Japanese women in other countries, a claim so idiotic I stopped watching the video at that point.

Meanwhile, Mainichi seems to be taking some additional measures. A source connected to GPlusMedia, the company that runs GaijinPot.com and JapanToday.com, has informed us that Mainichi has been pressuring the company into censoring some forum threads and articles that mention WaiWai and the controversy over it.

Update: The demonstration mentioned above also made TV news (including a mention of Japundit as a foreign website running WaiWai articles).

Update 2: The Aussie press has an article about Ryan Connell, claiming that he “has become one of the most reviled figures in Japan,” and that he is under police protection after numerous death threats directed at him and his family have appeared online. [via Marmot's Hole, hat tip to Julián]