A Korean YouTuber made a video about me with false claims and my name — what can a foreigner do about defamation in Korea?

This is defamation under Korean law on the strongest footing the law provides — false statements of fact, identifying you by name and image, published to a mass audience, causing measurable loss — and your nationality is irrelevant to your protection. There is a court order for takedown, it can be obtained quickly, and it is the right first move; a criminal complaint and a damages claim follow. The threatening messages are separate offenses by separate people, and they are also actionable. What decides all of this is preservation: the video, the comments and the messages must be captured today, before any of it is edited or deleted.

What this is under Korean law

Defamation by false statement online is an offense under Article 70(2) of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization (정보통신망법, jeongbo tongsinmang-beop) — up to seven years' imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW 50 million. Publishing false facts with the purpose of defaming is the aggravated form; the public-interest defense that protects truthful statements does not apply to falsehoods. "Cheats customers" and "deported from another country" are statements of fact, and they are either true or not; the burden of showing truth in a criminal case is not yours.

Using your name and photographs without consent, to portray you falsely, is also an infringement of your personality rights (인격권, ingyeokgwon) and, for the images, potentially of portrait rights; those support civil relief independently of the criminal offense. Loss of business from the video is recoverable as damages.

Getting the video down

Two mechanisms, and use both. The platform's own process is slow and inconsistent; file it, and do not rely on it. The legal mechanism is a preliminary injunction (가처분, gacheobun) from a Korean court prohibiting the publication and ordering the removal of the video and any derivatives, on the basis of an infringement of personality rights. Courts grant these on an expedited basis — often within weeks — where the applicant shows the statements are false or unverifiable and the harm is ongoing; a business losing clients from a viral video meets that. The order is directed at the YouTuber and can be enforced with daily penalties for non-compliance; it can also be served on the platform's Korean operation.

A related route: the Korea Communications Standards Commission and the platform's obligations under the Network Act to restrict access to defamatory content on a complaint — a supplementary tool, not a substitute for the court.

Criminal complaint and damages

A criminal complaint (고소, goso) for aggravated defamation puts the YouTuber under police investigation; the police obtain his identity from the platform if needed, which is also how you obtain it for the civil case. Our firm files the complaint and handles the police. The prospect of a criminal record is what changes a YouTuber's posture; many settle — with a retraction video and compensation — at that stage. Defamation is an offense that cannot be prosecuted against the victim's express will, which gives you control over whether a settlement ends it.

The civil claim for damages covers business loss (with evidence — the cancelled clients, the review data) and consolation money for reputational injury; Korean awards are moderate by American standards but are increasing for viral defamation with demonstrated harm. The injunction, the criminal complaint and the civil claim are usually run together.

The messages from viewers

Threats are intimidation (협박, hyeopbak) under the Criminal Act; persistent messages may be stalking under the Stalking Punishment Act; abusive ones are insult. Each sender is a separate offender, identifiable through the platform on police request. Preserve every message with the sender's handle and the time; a batch of complaints filed together is handled as a group, and the first prosecutions tend to end the rest. Do not reply to any of them.

Your situation as a foreign national

Nothing about your status limits your standing or your remedies. Your business's harm is the same harm a Korean business would suffer, and the courts treat it so. MEGA X handles the injunction, the criminal complaint and the civil claim.

What to do now, and what not to do

Today: capture the video in full with its URL, view count and date; screenshot the comments; export the messages; download your business's review history showing the before-and-after. Do not respond publicly, do not post your own video, and do not contact the YouTuber — a response is content he will use, and contact is something he will characterize. Have counsel send a preservation demand and file the injunction application this week.

Practical insight

Victims of viral defamation in Korea lose by waiting for the platform and by answering the video. The platform acts, if at all, after the harm; the answer video becomes a second front. The sequence that works is preservation, injunction, complaint — in that order, in the first two weeks. YouTubers with large followings understand court orders and criminal complaints far better than they understand reporting forms, and a retraction video obtained by settlement repairs more than a takedown alone.

Send us the video link and the messages and we can begin the injunction application and the complaint together — by text consultation or at +82-2-522-3959.

— MEGA X Law Firm Korea, Civil Litigation Team