Netizen investigators start to make comments on fake articles

As the presidential election is set to be held next year, signs of spreading of fake news in political circles are picking up already. Fake news articles have been quoted and stirred up some controversy, and comments of a politician are being distorted and turned into a malicious or false report.

In a while ago, a fake new story was circulated through the social media and it said that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump mentioned in his tweet, “If you want to know the future of female presidents, raise your eyes and see what has happened in South Korea.” The story went out that Trump compared Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to South Korean President Park Geun-hye who was blamed for her confidante Choi Soon-sil and her meddling of the state affairs.

The news story turned out to be fake. A Facebook user made up the story by mimicking the poetry of Jeong Hui-seong, a famous Korean poet, and the line read, “If someone asks you the way to home country, raise his eyes and let him see Gwanak Mountain.” It was a complete fake, but people actually believed and some news media reported the false story without a fact check, spreading the news. Last month, Rep. Yoon Ho-jung, the policy committee chairman of the Minjoo Party, made a comment on this and later corrected his words after it was turned out to be fake.

An article of a popular Internet community posted on Dec. 2 also portends spreading of a fake news story. It said that Rep. Kim Yong-tae, who defected from the ruling Saenuri Party, had an interview with a media on Nov. 22 and he said that it was an open secret within political circles that the Saenuri Party would join forces with the People’s Party as the presidential election is approaching in order to prevent former Minjoo Party leader Moon Jae-in from seizing power. The author also added that Rep. Kim said that the People’s Party and the Saenuri Party would work together to oppose the impeachment of President Park. This article, however, was a fake.

Such a fake story that looked like true, however, had a great ripple effect. Dozens of news media quoted the story as it was. Even the People’s Party issued an official review and criticized Kim next day. The lawmaker belatedly heard the news and could not hide his embarrassment.

When asked that the People's Party emergency committee chair Park Jie-won seemed to drag on time with regard to the impeachment, Kim said that the two parties seemed to have different opinions but they would not want the Minjoo Party, especially Moon Jae-in to rise to power and they would agree on this. Seen from his comment, the author wrote the story by concluding that the two parties would be united. The news media reported by quoting the online article.

In a telephone interview with the Dong-A Ilbo on Thursday, Rep. Kim sighed and said that it took a lot of time to pull the fake news article. “A false report pretending to be true was expanding and reproduced as time went by and I had nothing to do," he said. "I am still trying to improve the tarnished image due to the fake story.”

Jin-Woo Shin niceshin@donga.com