Home > >

[WHY] Why did Yoon declare martial law? Korea's political YouTubers might be to blame.

Published: 28 Dec. 2024, 07:05 Updated: 31 Dec. 2024, 10:27

LEE JIAN
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Left: President Yoon Suk Yeol gives a public address from the presidential office in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Dec. 12. Right: Silhouette of people on their phones against the backdrop of a YouTube logo [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE, REUTERS/YONHAP]

On Dec. 12, nine days after declaring — and retracting — emergency martial law, President Yoon Suk Yeol stood before a camera and made controversial and somewhat confusing statements to the public for nearly 30 minutes.

He accused the opposing liberal Democratic Party (DP) of colluding with North Korea to shut down parliament and claimed that the April parliamentary election, where the opposition won the majority, was rigged. According to Yoon, there was no choice but to impose military rule and save Korea from “antistate forces.”

It was the first time many had heard such assertions. But for a handful of avid YouTube users, Yoon’s words rang a clear bell.

A YouTuber is livestreaming conservative People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon entering a voting booth for the parliamentary elections on April 10, 2024, in Seodaemun District, western Seoul. [NEWS1]

One month ago, far-right political YouTuber and popular pundit Ko Sung-kook uploaded videos that mirrored the president’s televised public address, including the tone and rhetoric.

“No one trusts the polls and the NEC [National Election Commission] anymore. They carry the votes around in a basket and are a severe threat to democracy. They should not be trusted,” Ko is filmed telling his 1.1 million subscribers.

Ko is just one in an ecosystem of far-right political YouTubers who support their beliefs by stretching the truth and spreading unfounded ideas that extend to conspiracy theories.

A helicopter with armed special forces lands in front of the National Assembly building in Yeouido, western Seoul, after President Yoon Suk Yeol declares martial law on Dec. 3. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Ever since the now-impeached Yoon’s botched martial law declaration on Dec. 3, the big question on the lips of many has been why — why did the president make such a shocking decision, an ultimate act of self-sabotage that is now driving his political career to the brink?

Since then, a flood of findings and revelations have revealed that YouTube may be partly to blame. It also spotlights a political niche that is snowballing in defiance of a mainstream media that has repeatedly failed the public’s trust.

So, what do Korea's partisan political views look like on the world’s largest video platform? And has this fringe media movement become a more formidable force in Korean society today?

YouTube’s influence on the president

Silhouettes of laptop and mobile device users are seen next to a screen projection of the YouTube logo in this picture illustration taken on March 28, 2018. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Three days after Dec. 3, a hearing at the National Assembly unveiled that 14 names had been assembled and relayed to the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to track down. It included Yoon's most vocal critics, and some, according to NIS First Deputy Director Hong Jang-won, were to be arrested under the president's direct orders.

The list reportedly included politicians, like National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik and DP leader Lee Jae-myung, two ex-Supreme Court judges and one liberal YouTuber, Kim Ou-joon.

Special forces dispatched to the National Assembly on the night of Dec. 3 were also seen in front of Kim’s YouTube studio in Seodaemun District, western Seoul.

Kim, who founded one of Korea’s earliest political tabloids, The Ddanzzi, established his main YouTube channel, News Factory, in 2022. With 1.9 million subscribers as of Dec. 22, he runs an openly biased channel leaning left.

Far-left political YouTuber Kim Ou-joon speaks during a video on his channel News Factory [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Martial law soldiers were also sent to the NEC office, where they were ordered by Yoon and then-Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun to secure evidence of election fraud on the commission’s servers, according to special forces members' testimonies.

The NIS, which regularly runs inspections of the NEC, did not find any evidence supporting suspicions of a rigged general election during its security sweep last year, and it confirmed the facts again to parliament on Dec. 19. But it has been a consistent theory put out by the far-right YouTubers that elections have been faked and hacked by North Korea.

National Election Commission office in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi [YONHAP]

Minor Rebuilding Korea Party Rep. Lee Hai-min, who worked in Google’s IT department, said that YouTube’s algorithm was to blame for Yoon’s behavior.

"Scrutinizing Yoon's public address, I learned that he was genuinely in agreement with the voting fraud rumors that some far-right YouTube channels claim to be true," she told the press on Dec. 13 at the National Assembly.

"YouTube's algorithm has created confirmation bias and hysteria for our president.”

Partisan politics on YouTube

YouTubers are filming with their phones in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Aug. 31, 2023. [YONHAP]

Jung Seon-sook, an 87-year-old conservative, frequently views right-wing political YouTubers on her Samsung Galaxy phone.

She started watching them when former conservative President Park Geun-hye was impeached in 2016 because her friends sent her YouTube video links through text. “We all think that she [Park Geun-hye] was unfairly thrown out of office, and these videos reinforced those beliefs,” she said.

Jung is one of many in her age group who far-right YouTubers target to boost their presence on the platform.

Korean partisan politics on YouTube largely gained momentum with far-right political YouTubers, who sided with former President Park despite the widespread, relatively bipartisan opinion that she should be impeached for leaking state affairs to her friend and businesswoman, Choi Soon-sil. Park was impeached in late 2016 and ousted in 2017.

The videos used elementary language and logic to target Koreans over 60, who are often staunch conservatives and highly engaged in politics, consistently making up the largest demographic for voter turnout each year. They felt like their voices were being ignored by society as the former president was swiftly removed from the Blue House. But on YouTube, they found solace. With a clear target audience, the views proliferated and reached millions.

Parliament lawmakers hose water with a fire extinguisher on the special forces deployed to the National Assembly in western Seoul to stop them from voting and rebuff President Yoon Suk Yeol's emergency martial law declaration made a few hours earlier on Dec. 3. [YONHAP]

Far-left commentators grew apparent on YouTube as well, and misinformation and vitriol from both sides mushroomed. Today, 646 channels in Korea tagged as news and politics are active on the platform, with an average subscriber count of 600,000, according to YouTube data analytics platform Playboard,

Four political channels — three liberal and one conservative — unaffiliated with traditional news outlets also rank among the top 10 most-subscribed Korean political channels that have been active in the past month. The left-wing channel Maebul Show had the most subscribers, with 2.1 million. Its average weekly views amount to 560,846.

According to the National Assembly Research Service’s 2023 study of 80 such channels and 822 videos, the contents spent 87 percent of its time on average delivering opinions and 10 percent on facts. Eighty-six percent of the videos contained hateful and hostile language, and 90 percent featured panelists solely from one side of the political spectrum.

Videos on political pundit Ko Sung-kook's YouTube channel in support of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The term “asphalt YouTubers” was coined around 2022, pointing to political YouTubers who, despite having relatively small followings, are deeply committed to their causes. They frequently livestream political rallies and tail high-profile politicians, aiming to capture and amplify provocative moments.

YouTuber Kim Ou-joon publicly said that Yoon had planned to not only arrest him and the other politicians but also assassinate them. The claims garnered headlines and attention but were later found to be likely false after local media and officials found insufficient evidence to back them.

“[Political YouTube videos] are entertaining, and the information is well-organized,” said Choi Kwang-pil, a dedicated 55-year-old liberal. “It’s true that channels on the left and the right only talk about issues that are advantageous for them, but it is how they get the views.”

Left-wing YouTuber Kim Ou-joon testifies that he was targeted by President Yoon Suk Yeol's special forces deployed after the martial law declaration at the National Assembly complex in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Dec. 13. [NEWS1]

Political YouTube accounts in Korea have gained further notoriety after their massive revenues became public. According to Playboard, these channels are the only political content globally to appear on the platform’s monthly and yearly rankings for profits earned through YouTube’s Super Chat monetization program.

Right-wing political commentator Shin Hye-sik’s channel, with 1.55 million subscribers, ranked 11th on the monthly chart for November 2024, earning an estimated 58.7 million won ($39,796). Kim Ou-joon’s News Factory ranked 15th globally in 2023 for Super Chat yearly earnings, generating over 525 million won.

On the first day Kim transitioned from public radio broadcaster TBS to YouTube in January 2023, he made a record 29 million won in a single day through Super Chat, following his announcement that he would run an openly biased channel.

“The real power of the press and prosecutors is not in reporting or prosecuting, but in burying things that should have been reported and prosecuted,” he said on his channel on Jan. 10, 2023.

"I am determined to crack that cartel by being biased. It will be partisan, but the process of getting there will be fair.”

Distrust of traditional news outlets

Political YouTubers on the right and the left have a shared enemy: traditional journalism.

Many YouTube channels are founded on the premise that legacy news outlets do not sufficiently or unbiasedly report on political issues. They exist to fill in those blanks, and their devoted subscribers see them excelling in that aim.

“Traditional media reports the logic of the government as is,” said 53-year-old surnamed Choi, who identified himself as a staunch liberal. “I believe the YouTube channels on the left actually report the objective truth much better, with more depth and analysis.”

According to Reuters' 2024 Digital News Report, one in two Koreans uses YouTube for news each week. The average for the 46 countries on the report was 30 percent.

The data includes the YouTube channels of major traditional news broadcasters — MBC, KBS, SBS, and JTBC — which have their own channels. News podcasts with neutrally political content are also streamed and uploaded on YouTube. Recently gaining more attention are YouTube influencers who relay news, like Syuka World, which is run by a former fund manager. He has 3.44 million subscribers and states he doesn't have a particular political lean.

“I don’t trust all traditional media, and I feel like on YouTube, I can find news that is less biased to the left and the right,” said Kim Su-min, 27, who claims to be politically neutral. “I feel like I am more actively in search of news and diversifying my views when on YouTube compared to just watching the 8 o’clock news on TV.”

Reuters' Digital Report states that only one in three Koreans trust traditional media, the lowest score in Asia-Pacific. The study’s average for 46 countries was 40 percent.

‘The term ‘journalism’ applies to a much broader group of people,” said Professor Yu Hyun-jae of Sogang University’s College of Communications.

YouTubers with selfie sticks are commonly spotted among reporters at the live sites of headline news. Some call themselves journalists but are not registered with an official media outlet and, thus, freely bend facts, largely without penalties.

“But if viewers believe it and say that it is news, at the end of the day, that becomes news,” Yu said.

Acknowledging their influence, some politicians have chosen to build symbiotic relationships with them.

When former liberal National Assembly member Kim Bong-ju ran to become a member of the mighty Supreme Council of the DP in July, he appeared as a guest on the left-wing YouTube channel SaeNal and called it his “family.”

An exclusive report by local news outlet Hankyoreh in August 2022 stated that 30 far-right YouTubers were invited to Yoon’s presidential inauguration ceremony in May.

Even traditional media has caved. In May, major public broadcaster KBS hired hard left YouTuber Ko to host one of its morning news shows. He was recently dismissed after being seen on YouTube referencing the events since Dec. 3 as “pro-North Korea advocates accusing President Yoon of insurrection.”

“We have a systemic problem where we as a society have stopped fighting for the objective truth and, instead, just look for the validation of our beliefs,” said Yu. “Consuming information is a trickier task today than it has been in the past, but we have to make the active effort to widen our perspectives.”

BY LEE JIAN [[email protected]]