Voters stand in line to cast their ballots at a polling station in Seoul Station on March 4, 2022, the first day of two-day early voting for the March 9 presidential election. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Baseless claims on rigged presidential election have been spreading throughout YouTube and other social media platforms every election season, calling upon the need to curb such activity.
A Korea YouTuber followed by more than 600,000 people claimed that the government “must have manipulated the number of early votes,” on the following day of the elections.
Another YouTuber with 100,000 followers made similar accusations.
“The opposing People Power Party easily won the election. I don’t understand why the presidential elections ended in such a close call,” the YouTuber said.
Accusations of rigged elections first arose during the general elections in 2020, with some arguing that the QR codes printed on early votes contained personal information, a manipulation program added extra votes to a certain candidate through the tallying system, and that the equipment used during early voting was made by Huawei Technologies Co., the Chinese telecom giant sanctioned by the U.S.
These claims are seen as conspiracy theories since there is no basis to support them.
“It is hard to argue that any accusations made after the elections have obstructed the act of voting, and we cannot claim that they have interfered with the freedom of election, as stipulated under Article 237 of the Public Official Election Act,” an official at the National Election Commission said.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
