New derogatory online terms arise ahead of pres. election

Jin Seong-jun, spokesman of the main opposition Democratic United Party, said in a commentary Friday that a group of people leaving online comments backing the ruling Saenuri Party were caught, claiming that the identity of “sibaldan” and “ilbe” has been exposed.

Senior party member Yoon Ho-joong also told on a radio talk show Friday that thousands of “robot (Twitter) accounts” had been created that followed or were being followed by nobody, and that “egg ghosts” kept retweeting comments unfavorable to a particular candidate.

With rampant smear campaigns on the Internet and social media before Wednesday`s presidential election, politicians have used a number of newly coined online slang terms that are unfamiliar to many people.

“Sibaldan,” which topped Friday’s “hottest keywords” on the leading Korean Internet portal Naver, is short for “Sibjagun (crusade) Albadan (group of part-time workers).” The term refers to Twitter users who use automated devices to send out tweets supporting a certain candidate and slandering another.

The term became widely used among Internet users in September, when a popular podcast talk show coined it while reading a list of some 350 Twitter accounts that it claimed were supporters of Park Geun-hye, the presidential candidate of the ruling party. Many Internet users maintained that a group of people caught by the National Election Commission for posting online comments backing Park and blasting her main opposition rival Moon Jae-in were sibaldan.

“Ilbe” is short for “Ilgan (daily) Best Storagehouse,” a conservative Internet community website. Ilbe members are called “Ilbechung (Ilbe worms).” Online slang terms as “Jeolladians,” which is a derogatory term for people from the Jeolla provinces, and “Jwapa zombies,” which makes fun of Democratic United Party supporters, are known to have been spread through the Ilbe website.

“Egg ghost” refers to an anonymous Twitter user who has no self-introductions or photos of him or herself. The name is derived from a user who has no profile photos on Twitter and instead has an egg-shaped photo on their account. Egg ghosts are suspected of opening anonymous Twitter accounts with the intent to slander a certain party or group and spread tweets blasting a certain candidate.

irun@donga.com