Singer and actor IU (real name Lee Ji-eun) has initiated legal proceedings in a U.S. court to identify the individual behind malicious online posts. It has been revealed that the content of these posts reached a level of severity that included mocking national tragedies and making false claims about deceased celebrities.
According to reports from The Biz and Dispatch on July 20, IU filed an application for discovery (28 U.S.C. §1782) against Meta at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on July 15 (local time). This procedure is intended to identify the operator of a Threads account for use in a defamation civil lawsuit currently underway in South Korea.
IU's legal team claims that the account in question repeatedly wrote at least 52 false posts between March and October of last year, causing defamation. It is reported that they have requested the minimum information necessary to identify the account holder from the U.S. court, including the user's name, email address, phone number, physical address, and recent login IP records.
According to the application submitted to the court, the malicious posts were categorized into six types: plagiarism allegations, false claims related to China, distortion of overseas achievements, allegations of marketing using the deceased, allegations of media control and public opinion manipulation, and false claims linking her songs to national tragedies.
The severity of the malicious posts was particularly alarming. The author repeatedly claimed that the Netflix series "When Life Gives You Tangerines," which had tens of billions of won in production costs, was a failure overseas, and also posted conspiracy-theory-style content alleging that IU's side controls the media and manipulates internet public opinion.
Furthermore, the author reportedly made false claims suggesting that IU used the deaths of her colleagues, such as the late Sulli, JONGHYUN, and Koo Ha Ra, for promotional purposes. It was also reported that the author wrote malicious posts claiming that IU's songs "Ah puh" and "Strawberry Moon" contained meanings mocking the Sewol Ferry tragedy and the Itaewon tragedy, respectively.
In addition, the author allegedly repeatedly posted false information referring to IU as a Chinese national or an individual linked to Chinese capital, and claimed that she has "virtually no popularity overseas."
In the application, IU's side argued that "it is highly likely that the user is a South Korean resident," citing the fact that the account exclusively used the Korean language and focused on domestic issues. They also emphasized that defamation based on false facts is not protected under freedom of expression.
If the U.S. court grants the application for discovery, Meta will review whether to submit the relevant subscriber information. If the identity is confirmed, the civil and criminal legal proceedings currently underway in South Korea are expected to accelerate.
IU has consistently taken a firm stance against those who write malicious posts. In February, she announced that she was pursuing criminal complaints and civil lawsuits against 96 malicious commenters. In May, a malicious commenter who stalked her while claiming that IU was a Chinese spy was sentenced to 4 months in prison with a 1-year suspended sentence in an appellate trial.
Photo = Reporter Baek Seung-cheol
(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Kyung-youn)
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