A police line blocks entry to an alley in Itaewon district in Seoul on Nov. 1, 2022, where a stampede during Halloween parties killed more than 150 people. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Photos and videos of the Itaewon crowd crush on YouTube and other social media platforms are exacerbating the trauma among victims and their families as well as the public.
A 29-year-old office worker surnamed Lee who lost a friend in the stampede unintentionally ran into a YouTube video of the Itaewon tragedy, and couldn’t recover from the trauma ever since.
“It hurt me this much. What would happen if the victims and their families saw this?” Lee said.
Oh, a 29-year-old witness of the Itaewon crowd crush, said he could not forget the people taking photos and videos of the incident.
“A YouTuber was doing a live broadcast of the dead bodies and people doing CPR on the victims. When I told the person how inappropriate that was, the person told me that it was none of my business,” Oh said.
The videos have spread like wildfire across Twitter and other social media.
Ordinary citizens who have been trying to stay away from the videos inadvertently found them being shared on KakaoTalk and other chat messengers, exacerbating the trauma on a national scale.
Rep. Jang Kyung-tae of the Democratic Party reported that the more than 100 requests had been submitted to the Korea Communications Standards Commission to take down videos and pictures of the Itaewon tragedy as of last Saturday.
YouTube and other platforms are deleting videos based on their internal guidelines.
“Online platforms lack any guidelines on footage of disasters and accidents. Platforms are beginning to wield wider public influence. They should set up manuals and guidelines to take more social responsibility accordingly,” said Koo Jeong-woo, a sociology professor at Sungkyunkwan University.
“It’s not just the creators, but the consumers, too, need to stay ethical and be responsible when accessing such content.”
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
