Park Wi of 'Wiracle,' who was embroiled in controversy over targeting a public service worker, was also found to have additionally deleted social experiment videos.
OSEN confirmed on the 1st that Park Wi deleted the video titled 'CCTV 영상을 공개하는 이유,' which contained the incident when he got off the KTX on the 23rd, and over the course of a week he switched 13 additional videos to private.
After deleting the 'CCTV를 공개하는 이유' video on the 23rd, when the 'Wiracle' channel had 798 videos remaining, 10 more videos were deleted on the 26th of last month, and two days later on the 28th three more videos were deleted. With a total of 14 videos deleted, the 'Wiracle' channel currently has 785 videos remaining.
The reason Park Wi switched the videos to private was not confirmed. However, it is notable that the videos he deleted were recently reexamined and became a starting point for reassessing Park Wi's sincerity. The deleted videos include '하반신 마비인 사람이 KTS 타는 법' and '한숨만 나옵니다....' released in August 2022. When he released those videos, Park Wi tagged keywords such as '사회실험카메라' and '불편한 진실.'
In those videos, instead of showing gratitude to people who gave up their seats or made space for wheelchairs, Park Wi left room for negative interpretation by comparing overseas examples and using captions. After the controversy over targeting a public service worker, netizens who saw the videos criticized that rather than leading disability awareness improvement, Park Wi tried to show domestic lack of awareness and portray Korea as a backward country in terms of consideration for people with disabilities by comparing with foreign countries.
After the controversy over targeting a public service worker, Park Wi apologized, saying, I did not consider the position of the staff member who had tried their best to help me and had politely apologized. I thought only negatively about mistakes that occurred in the process of helping me better. My way of conveying it was immature and my thinking was short-sighted.
Despite Park Wi's apology, public disappointment continued and led to a drop in subscribers. The 'Wiracle' channel, which had 1 million subscribers, has decreased to 955,000.
[OSEN]