South Korean billionaire Chung Yong-jin fumes after Instagram removes ‘crush commies’ post
- Chung, a cousin of Samsung’s leader who heads retail giant Shinsegae Group, had posted a photo that was accompanied by the hashtag #myulgong (‘crush commies’)
- Instagram blamed the removal on a system error. But it’s not the first time Chung has bucked the trend of chaebol chiefs shying away from publicity
The head of South Korea’s retail giant Shinsegae Group expressed his displeasure over Instagram’s decision to remove a post in which he displayed anti-communist sentiment.
Chung Yong-jin on Wednesday shared a photo of pills usually taken to treat a hangover after too much alcohol consumption, with a message in Korean saying “I’ll survive to the last moment”.
The post – similar to Chung’s other messages on Instagram, where he has more than 700,000 followers – was also accompanied by the hashtag #myulgong (“crush commies”).
Instagram deleted the post, citing a breach of community guidelines, including inciting violence and hatred.
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But on Thursday, the social media platform owned by Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said the photo was removed due to a system error.
Following Chung’s request for the deletion to be reviewed, the post was restored, a spokesperson said.
Chung, who is also a cousin of Samsung Electronics vice-chairman Jay Y. Lee, had already reposted the image on his account before Instagram reconsidered its decision.
“This was suddenly erased. How could it be an incitement of violence? I will survive to the last moment. #myulgong,” the post read.
The 52-year-old also shared a screenshot of Instagram’s erasure notice with a comment: “I hate commies”. The posts drew thousands of likes from his followers.
Chung’s company sought to distance itself from the episode, with a spokesman saying “we have no comment on what has been done privately”.
Members of South Korea’s family-run conglomerates known as chaebol, which fuelled the country’s rise as an export giant, are usually publicly reticent and do not readily express their views on social media.
But Chung has bucked the trend and it’s not the first time he has shared posts tinged with anti-communist views.
“For some reason, the photo looks as if it is related to the Communist Party,” he wrote last November after sharing a photo of himself posing with two workers dressed in red at a pizza restaurant.
“Don’t misunderstand. I hate communism,” Chung added.
The tycoon also reiterated he “hates communism” in another post related to North Korea’s public execution of people who watched the hit Netflix show Squid Game.
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Jung Yeon-sung, a business administration professor at Dankook University, said the Shinsegae Group scion should be “prudent with his words”.
“Everyone has freedom of speech, but in the case of Chung, he is in a position of responsibility and it would be better to refrain from making comments that can be misunderstood or misinterpreted,” he said.
While Shinsegae has no business exposure in China after its last E-mart mall was closed in 2017, the government and people in the world’s second-largest economy have been sensitive about anything that might be construed as questioning or offending the party’s legitimacy.
Additional reporting by Korea Times
