(nytimes.com/2020/03/25/world/asia/south-korea-pornography-online.html)

On March 26, 2020 (South Korean Time), the South Korean police asked prosecutors to indict a 24-year-old man, Cho Joo-bin, online alias “The Doc,” on charges of blackmailing 74 young women, including at least 16 minors, into making sexually explicit video clips that he sold online through encrypted chat rooms.

“When the police finally caught him last week, “The Doc” turned out to be Mr. Cho, an ordinary looking graduate of a two-year vocational college in Incheon, west of Seoul, who once was his campus newspaper’s editor in chief. Mr. Cho has lived a double life, volunteering for a charity that aids handicapped or poor people, according to the local news media.”

“The police also apprehended a dozen accomplices, including young men in their 20s who were serving in government agencies as part of their mandatory military duty. Investigators were also looking for another anonymous chat room operator known as “GodGod.””

“Some estimates in the local news media say that up to 300,000 paying customers use these online chat rooms, Telegram, in which operators go so far as to provide tailor-made footage for individual customers that often include extremely dehumanizing sex scenes, the police say.”

As the news report exposes, more and more South Koreans are launching online petition to identify all customers of online chat rooms operated by ‘The Doc”. Yes, I would like to turn more attention to these customers which were said to include a lot of public figures, government functionaries, entertainers, sports stars, professors, CEOs of big corporations, and even police, etc. A crime with who-knows-how-many victims and 260,000 involvers. Without this demand-driven supply chain, how many “The Doc” or “GodGod” can boom such a market?

It is not just a crime of pornography. This is an anti-humanist violence on the whole mankind.