In 2022, during the presidential election, a commenter named Kim left a comment saying "a bastard supports a bastard" towards Shin Dae-chul, who had declared his support for candidate Lee Jae-myung. The issue of whether Kim's comment constituted defamation has been controversial and a ruling was issued by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that Kim's comment did not seriously infringe on an individual's right to personality or degrade the other person's dignity to the extent of causing humiliation. Instead, it was considered merely a somewhat unrefined expression representing negative and critical opinions towards Shin Dae-chul. Therefore, the Supreme Court overturned the original ruling which sentenced Kim to a fine and sent the case back to the Jeju District Court. This ruling is interpreted as guaranteeing political public discourse in online news article comment sections while emphasizing the freedom of expressing critical opinions and the need for caution in exercising state punishment.
