This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz RM Report site at 3:47 p.m. on Jul. 21, 2026.
Celebrities including Jang Wonyoung and IU are turning to U.S. courts to identify malicious commenters hiding behind anonymity. In Korea, it is difficult to obtain information on users of overseas platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, but they are using the U.S. discovery system to identify the authors and then pursue civil and criminal liability at home.
According to legal sources, IU's agency filed a discovery application against Meta with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on the 15th. It asked the court to order the submission of subscriber information, including the author's name and address, email, phone number, and access IP.
Discovery is a procedure in U.S. civil litigation to obtain case-related evidence and materials before a full trial. Title 28, Section 1782 of the U.S. Code allows U.S. courts, upon review, to order corporations or individuals in the United States to produce materials needed for proceedings that are pending or contemplated abroad. IU's side is expected to use this to secure author information held by Meta and use it in domestic litigation.
◇ U.S. court offered a solution to the "Taldeok Prison Camp case"
This approach has already proven effective in the "Taldeok Prison Camp" case involving Jang Wonyoung of the girl group Ive. The operator of Taldeok Prison Camp is known to have posted false videos about Jang and other celebrities and earned about 250 million won in revenue from Oct. 2021 to Jun. 2023.
Jang Wonyoung's agency, Starship Entertainment, took legal action but struggled to identify the operator. That was because it was difficult to obtain subscriber information held by Google, which runs YouTube, through domestic court procedures alone.
In 2023, Starship applied to the U.S. District Court in California, where Google is headquartered, to order the submission of the operator's identifying information. The court granted the request, allowing the agency to secure identity details such as name and address, and the materials were used in domestic civil and criminal suits.
The operator, a person surnamed Park whose identity was revealed, received a final Supreme Court sentence in Jan. of two years in prison, suspended for three years, and a forfeiture of 210 million won. In the civil case, the court of first instance ordered a payment of 50 million won to Jang Wonyoung, and the appeal is ongoing.
However, filing for discovery does not mean all information is immediately disclosed. The applicant must show that a lawsuit is pending or contemplated in Korea and that the requested materials are necessary for the proceedings. The platform may object, or the court may limit the scope of production for privacy reasons.
◇ A "channel to secure evidence" in corporate disputes
Discovery is also used in disputes between corporations as a means to obtain internal materials that are hard to secure in Korea. Representative examples include the battery dispute between LG Chem(051910) and SK Innovation(096770), and the botulinum toxin dispute between Medytox(086900) and Hugel(145020).
An IP specialist at a major law firm said, "It is a strategic choice to obtain evidence that is hard to secure in Korea by using the U.S. discovery system," adding, "If the structure in a Korean courtroom is to fight with only the evidence you have, in the United States the structure is to secure all evidence through discovery before a full trial and then contest the case."
Discovery is also cited as a reason victims filed a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. parent company in the large-scale data breach at Coupang that surfaced in Nov. last year.
Kim Guk-il, head of law firm Daeryun, which represents the case, said, "If the case proceeds in the United States, we can obtain internal materials through discovery, including the board meeting minutes of the headquarters, security investment decision records, and reporting lines," adding, "This will be the smoking gun in this lawsuit."