Victims of fake news: When the truth doesn’t matter

"Just two days before the Constitutional Court's ruling to dismiss former President Yoon Suk Yeol, my name appeared in a private intelligence report—a so-called 'jjirasi.'" That alone was startling, but the contents were even more absurd. It claimed I had sent messages to acquaintances predicting the impeachment would pass by a certain vote margin and that I was "inciting" others. I hadn’t done any such thing. It wasn’t until I began receiving messages from concerned colleagues asking if it was true that I realized I had become the victim of disinformation.

The greatest victims of malicious fake news during the impeachment crisis were likely the Constitutional Court justices. In the four months following the December 3 martial law, rumors, online and offline channels, overflowed with falsehoods, including blatant personal attacks. Amid this storm of misinformation, the justices had to proceed with their deliberations under threats of violence. Reports even surfaced that some justices suffered severe stress-induced skin conditions, likely a result of the relentless psychological pressure rooted in disinformation and the intimidation it fueled.

The damage did not stop at individuals. False claims that certain justices were politically aligned or secretly colluding behind the scenes were weaponized by both sides of the impeachment debate. In a highly polarized environment, the viral spread of misinformation became a trigger for intensifying hate and division. As disinformation was amplified on radical YouTube channels and circulated widely online, some fell into confirmation bias and conspiratorial thinking and cursed the opposing camp, while others capitalized on it for profit.

Eventually, disinformation moved beyond shadowy rumor mills and YouTuber echo chambers. The president himself cited allegations of election fraud as a justification for martial law. A political party, claiming to represent the public will, issued a statement treating doctored photos of Constitutional Court justices as if they were real. In the courtroom itself, the former president’s attorney bizarrely cited a supposed confession by Chinese nationals about election rigging, drawing smirks. In this way, fake news morphed from a tool of character assassination into a virus infecting the very foundation of our democracy, infecting the administrative, legislative, and judicial branches of government.

This isn’t just speculation. A recent study by the University of Gothenburg’s Varieties of Democracy Institute in Sweden concluded that disinformation now poses a serious threat to South Korean democracy. The institute downgraded South Korea from a full liberal democracy to a lower category, identifying it as a country where authoritarianism is rising. It warned that governments often exploit disinformation in such regimes to deliberately inflame polarization. We have seen this chain reaction, where disinformation breeds hate, hate demonizes the opposition, and demonization drives extreme political polarization.

The consequences run even deeper. Political polarization, inflated by disinformation, has now blurred the lines between truth and falsehood. Many have lost the ability, or even the will, to tell them apart. People now judge the truthfulness of a claim not by facts but by political affiliation. One study proves this. Professor Yoon Sung-yi of Kyung Hee University analyzed a public opinion poll conducted by the East Asia Institute last year. The findings revealed that the more hostile someone felt toward former President Yoon, the more likely they were to believe disinformation aligned with progressive narratives. Conversely, the more intense the hostility toward Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae-myung, the more conservative-aligned falsehoods were taken as fact. Even if the opposing side were to declare the sky is blue, it would be dismissed as "fake news."

Thus, once the soil from which polarization grew, disinformation has become the poisoned fruit of polarization itself. This vicious cycle is the unfortunate legacy of former President Yoon’s political breakdown. While loudly calling for the eradication of fake news, he simultaneously believed in it and used it to fuel animosity against his opponents. Punishing or regulating fake news is no longer sufficient. The Constitutional Court corrected his democratic backsliding through judicial procedures. However, the greater task remains to dismantle the politics of extremes that have torn our society apart.