[SNS세상]Rumors spread online in Japan after the Fukushima earthquake, “Chosunians poison the well”

On the 13th, after the earthquake of magnitude 7.3 in Fukushima Prefecture and Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, fake news is spreading online.

In particular, according to Japan’s Mainichi Newspaper on the 14th, immediately after the earthquake occurred, the content of “‘Chosun people’ or’black people’ poisoning the well” spread on Japanese Twitter.

This seems to mimic the rumors that spread during the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, such as “The Koreans poisoned the well” and “The Koreans caused a riot”, interpreted by Mainichi. In fact, it is said that thousands of Koreans were slaughtered by some Japanese who believed this rumor during the Great Kanto Earthquake.

Mainichi pointed out, “Another discriminatory remarks, rumors, and uncertain information about the Fukushima earthquake are scattered on Twitter and YouTube. The same phenomenon happens every time a disaster occurs.”

As these rumors spread, even among Japanese netizens, “If you look at Japanese people who spread rumors and treat them lightly, it seems that they have completely failed in education to reflect on the past”, “A lot of people are joking about the murdered history,” There were also self-help voices such as “I don’t think Japan is a good country, which is full of rumors that Koreans put poison in the well.”

On local social media, false rumors spread that the earthquake was an “artificial earthquake” caused by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. At one time, on Japanese Twitter,’artificial earthquake’ became a real-time trend word. The media said, “An earthquake may occur due to an underground nuclear test, but it is impossible to artificially cause a large-scale earthquake like this one.”

Whenever a disaster occurs, fake news and rumors tend to spread because many people are in an uneasy state, Mainichi explained.

Even at the time of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, a rumor spread that “foreigner crimes are on the rise”. Afterwards, researchers at Tohoku University surveyed Sendai residents in Miyagi Prefecture, a region affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, and more than 80% of the respondents answered that they “believed the rumors.”

During the July 2018 heavy rain in western Japan, rumors circulated that’Chinese, Koreans, and Koreans in Japan are stealing’. During the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, a man who tweeted false information that “a lion ran away from a zoo” was arrested for disrupting work.

Daisuke Tsuda, a Japanese journalist, warned, “Do not spread uncertain information immediately, but wait for the media to report it after confirmation.”

YTN PLUS Reporter Ji-Young Moon ([email protected])

[저작권자(c) YTN & YTN plus 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]