First Amendment Bombing Cyberspace Residence

First Amendment Bombing Cyberspace Residence

            Take one step into De Anza College and at least a fourth of the student population will be on their phone either on Facebook, texting or just browsing the internet watching YouTube videos in between breaks. But, with social activities becoming less personal, bullying and criticizing peers are getting harsher.

            Any citizen can become an online reporter through Facebook and blogs with a few clicks in seconds. Citizens of the U.S. are privileged with the right of free speech through the First Amendment of the constitution.

            South Korean Stanford graduate and famous hip-hop artist, Tablo from Epik High, acquired more than 190,000 anti-fans in just several days due to a jealous fan claiming, “Tablo could not have graduated from Stanford with both a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree in English and creative writing respectively, in just three and a half years.”

            The anti-fan named his forum “TaJinYo,” short for, “Tablo, tell the truth”.

            The forum was riddled with evidence of why TaJinYo suspected such claims.

            Even when Tablo came up front with twitter proof photos of graduation certificates and transcripts, the singer was slammed down with claims such as, “the logo color looks wrong.”

It got so bad, past school friends of Tablo from Stanford had to come forward in a filmed documentary to help disprove the claims.

            Everything snowballed from there, the singer’s already sick father died from stress and worry for his son.

            Though, it was a single person who started the facade, only 190,000 people could produce such results. Every person’s comments and single thoughts resulted in an unfair death.

South Korea is leading the movement against cyber bullying. It is one of the few who fund a whole cyber police department whose sole job is to take care of cyber attacks against individuals or group.

            Over six celebrity suicides took place in the last decade from simple malicious comments over the internet. JinShil Choi and JaeHwan Ahn, a famous celebrity couple who are both actors committed suicide over malicious rumors leaving their single son and daughter with just their grandmother.

            Not only did Choi kill herself, but so did her brother due to guilt.

            The U.S. as advanced as South Korea, but it will be in the near future. Sticks and stones can hurt, but so can words in the age of the internet.

            Following Choi’s suicide, South Korea’s suicide rate shot up by 70 percent in a single month. That meant 700 less lives than it should be in a single month.

            The First Amendment is powerful and important. But, it is now just as easy to abuse the right without a second thought. Behind every username is a real person.

            Zefrank1, a regular vlogger on YouTube, received the comment: “Ze, I affiliate with the LGBT group, I’m bi and my boyfriend is trans and gay. I’ve been scrutinized by friends and family because of my ‘choices’. I don’t feel comfortable living in my own home. Why am I being scrutinized for wanting to be happy?”

            But, three days later zefrank1 received second comment: “Ze, the boy that posted [that] was my boyfriend. Three days ago he took his own life. I know how much he loved your videos and like so many others I’m sure tried to get your attention. Can I ask you a favor? Send a message to your viewers, make it clear to them that suicide isn’t a fix and that they are never alone.”

            “It’s painful to see words written that no longer have a body or a face or a smile or a beating heart behind them,” said zefrank1 on his getting better vlog. “It may seem like the way to end the pain, but it doesn’t end it. It spreads it out to other people. People that care about you that you might not even know yet and those people have to live with that pain for the rest of their lives.”