SBS issued an official apology regarding the SNS hashtag controversy.
On the 22nd, SBS said in an official statement, "We confirmed that some automatically generated hashtags on the above SNS posts contained inappropriate words and deleted those hashtags," and added, "We will be more careful in managing hashtags. We apologize."
Earlier, on the 20th, SBS released an official apology regarding the 2018 broadcast of It Was Wanting to Know, "Power and organized crime - one year after the Pattaya murder case." Regarding allegations raised in that broadcast about President Lee Jae-myung's alleged ties to organized crime, it said, "It has been confirmed legally that this is not true," and added, "We apologize for raising suspicions without solid evidence."
This was a follow-up measure after President Lee Jae-myung raised the issue the same day by mentioning the broadcast on his SNS. The president strongly criticized, saying, "I wonder whether It Was Wanting to Know will do follow-up reporting," and "Because of this broadcast, I was even driven to being labeled a 'murderous gangster.'"
Later, SBS News, while posting about the apology on SNS, included hashtags such as "suspicion," "president," "Lee Jae-myung," "murder," "defense counsel," and "Supreme Court."
In particular, with words such as "murder" included, criticisms followed that it was inconsistent with the purpose of the apology, and as the controversy spread the post was deleted, but screenshots circulated on online communities and social media, prompting some netizens to criticize, "Is this an insincere apology?" and "It looks like a power play."
As the controversy erupted, SBS finally conveyed its apology through an official statement.
[Photo] SBS It Was Wanting to Know
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