South Korea aims to cool Internet rage attacks

The young woman was riding on the subway with her small dog. The dog defecated and she did not clean up after her pet.

Someone caught the incident in pictures shot with a mobile phone, which were then posted on the Internet with a brief description of what took place. Before long าdog poop girlำ had become the most-searched phrase among South Korean Internet users.

South Koreans were shocked by the incident but they were also stunned by the Internet witch-hunt that soon followed.

South Korea is the most wired country in the world and Internet witch-hunts have been conducted with such ferocity that people have committed suicide, left the country in shame and taken new identities after being the subject of a cyber attack.

The campaigns play on one of the most sensitive issues in Korean society - the feeling of shame. The close-knit nature of the society also means the campaigns can strike targets quickly.

With most households in the country connected by broadband, the campaigns can lead to collateral damage as well as permanently staining the reputation of innocent people who have no time to respond effectively to the attacks.

In the case of dog poop girl, which took place last year, the Internet site of one university crashed when it was flooded with angry emails demanding the school take action against the young woman who had outraged so many people.

The only problem was, the offender did not go to that school.

While those South Koreans who actively take part in public debates over the Internet - dubbed าnetizensำ - were searching for the identity of dog poop girl, innocent people were mistakenly identified and their reputations sullied.

าThe Internet is turning the whole society into a kangaroo court,ำ the Korea Herald newspaper wrote in an editorial.