I Sued For Defamation…

I’d like to open up this blog post to say this is the first and last time I will address my haters or this situation. The comments will be disabled on this blog post because I honestly don’t care what anyone else has to say on the matter. People have been speculating and being assholes about it for months.

And now it’s my turn to speak out.

The reason why this blog post has taken so much time for me to write is because over the past few months, I’ve been writing and rewriting it over and over again. Some days, I get really angry and I just want to use cutting words. However, if I say nasty things online just like the people who were awful to me, that just drags me down to their level. And makes me everything they say I am. I’m better than that. I always have been.

Now, I’m sure you all saw the title and are waiting for me to spill the super hot tea. This is an enormous blog post, so make yourself a snack or a drink. The biggest reason I’ve been silent was because of the legal procedure, but now it’s time for me to stand up for myself publicly and finally move on now that my side of the story is out.

Before I get into the situation, this is an open letter to all the people who love to hate on me, send me nasty messages and emails.

Dear Haters,

If you are looking to tear me down and make me stop creating things that will help others, do you pay my bills? Didn’t think so. I love my blog, Instagram, and YouTube channel more than I care about what you think, and I WILL NEVER STOP doing what I love because you’re afraid of someone else’s success.

It’s time to take several seats and do something more productive with than spew hateful, untrue, and disgusting rhetoric. I also accept being your sponge because I realize, you’re actually suffering deep down.

The fact is, at the end of the day, I’m living my best life. Living in Japan and Korea have been a dream. I built an empire off two countries I truly love.

At the end of the day, I will continue being Gina Bear. After all, the nickname Gina Bear was given to me by my best friend in high school who said I had a big heart and warm hugs. Truly, I am honored to carry such a loving nickname from one of the most kind hearted people I know.

My goal has always been to help expats and women who want to travel to Asia and beyond. It has always been my mission to document my journey, share my mistakes, and give advice to others so they can live their very best life. The mission of my blog and YouTube channel has first and foremost been this and it always will be.

It is neither my job nor responsibility to change the fictional version of me you created in your mind. I know who I am. I love who I am and I know what my purpose is.

Love Always,
Gina Bear

Now let’s get back to that regularly scheduled program…

So what happened?

Back in May I posted this blog post, How To Rent a Seoul Oppa in a very large expat Facebook group for women. Let’s call it, Facebook Group A for clarification’s sake. Apparently I can’t use “handsome oppa” or “renting a handsome oppa tour guide” without triggering certain people.

I blocked many women who were using derogatory comments in the post and said nothing back because I simply cannot be bothered with that level of negativity. As a result, many took it as a free for all to make an entirely new post in Facebook Group A that was over 300 comments bashing me in front of an audience (at the time) of 13,000 members.

Many of the commenters seemed to feel pure enjoyment making rude comments on my appearance, visa status, claiming I was fetishist and racist af, a frequenter of escort services, Koreaboo, why I deserve this level of hatred and bashing, and my writing style.

The saddest part? The majority of the commenters are English teachers like myself… And honestly, I wouldn’t want any of these women near any child if that’s the way they behave online.

This is the first time I’ve encountered anything so vile and cruel, and I was in no way prepared for it. I needed answers and this is the best I could come up with on why people think it’s okay to cyberbully:

• hurting others makes them feel powerful
• it helps them cope with their own low self-esteem
• they have trouble empathizing with those they hurt
• Anonymity—cyberbullying allows bullies to avoid facing their victims, so it requires less courage and provides the illusion that bullies won’t get caught
• Ignorance of the consequences

A few people in the same hate thread, decided to deep dive into my blog and share a very old post written over six years ago called, Asian Men Are Sexy. The post highlights my experiences dating in the MidWest, how movies and American culture brainwashed me to believe that Asian men were the least attractive out of all races. And yes, I have experienced people making squint eyes and heard White, Black, and Latino men and women saying that Asian men have “tiny penises.” In a perfect world, shit like this wouldn’t happen, but the racism and rhetoric STILL very much exists in America. I highly encourage you to read that post because I make a lot of pretty good points there.

I guess I can’t be too angry because I made hella bank in ad revenue, but at the cost. I lost 2.5K on Instagram, 1k on YouTube, and my blog views were immediately cut in half. I also spent the next half of the year in limbo because I also lost a lot of residual income after that.

Unfortunately, there were quite a few trolls who felt very empowered by the mob mentality and used me as a target. I received hate comments on my Instagram and YouTube channel. Some even went as far as posting about me publicly on their personal pages and sending me personal messages.

Korean Defamation Laws

Some people think that the laws are similar to their home countries as compared to Korea. I highly recommend you read up on Korean law as ignorance can get you into a lot of trouble.

The constitution of the USA protects the freedom of speech. The provisions of the first amendment protects true speech and even false statements when in the form of a parody, hyperbole, and without malice. When it comes to suing for defamation in America, the accusing party must prove that the statements are false.

However, according to Korean law, it falls on the defendants to prove the statements are true (and even if they are, they’re still in trouble). Cyber defamation in Korea is defined by posting something with the intent to “purposely disparage.” The cyber defamation laws are similar to “stalking laws” in other countries requiring that the alleged defamer had to take the extra step in defaming their victim. The element of this crime is not difficult to establish.

The punishment for Korean citizens (depending on the severity of the crime) is imprisonment and/or a fine. A fine for non-Koreans may lead to deportation and inability to seek work.

For more on defamation in Korea, check out Korea’s Cyber Defamation Laws, the Definition of Defamation in Korea, and Defamation Law Under Korea on The Korea Law Blog.

Why I’m Speaking Out

With this blog post, I feel like the first order of business is to take my power back and stand up for myself. My silence was taken as weakness, but it was actually my most powerful asset in this entire situation. I am breaking my silence to say, “I have straightened my crown, I know who tf I am, and you messed with the wrong queen.”

Despite what anyone thinks, this post is not for revenge in any way, shape or form. It’s for me to personally put my side of the story out and move on once and for all.

The purpose of this post is to highlight everything I’ve gone through and educate those who want to defame or cyberbully another human being. Or if you find yourself in a situation similar to me, you know what tools you have in your arsenal and how you can defend yourself.

In addition, I will be explaining how and why the comments made against myself and my blog are defamatory. I also want to explain, how according to Korean law, I was able to press charges for what was done to me. Because no one should ever have to endure what I did. I didn’t deserve what happened to me and neither does anyone else.

The Legal Procedure

My attackers didn’t realize taking my blog posts and posting slanderous things about me as a response definitely falls under defamation.

In my research, I found a service run by Daniel Choi called Butlers Korea and I HIGHLY recommend him. He gave me a lot of advice on how I should go about suing the individuals, how to translate the paperwork, and how things are done in Korea’s legal system.

I then went to a reputable translation service, got all of the screenshots and blog posts translated, and went to the police station. They handed me a lot of forms and said to put in my statement in English and Korean so the police knew what the situation was.

Once I turned the forms in, I was then given an interview by the police for further clarification and whether I wanted to settle (make an agreement) or press charges. After a month of investigation, both individuals were found and notified I was suing them.

Seriously, shout out to the cyber teams of officers who investigated my case because they were freaking AMAZING.

The way the legal system in Korea works is that we either A) come to an agreement and I drop the charges or B) we don’t have an agreement and it goes straight to the prosecutor where they decide whether the defendant is guilty, if they will pay fines, and if a mark will be put on their record.

In addition, I will not be showing any original screenshots even with the names blocked out. I have strong evidence to believe Defendant B is obsessively social stalking me.

Defendant A

I will be quoting direct phrases Defendant A used to defame me and why they are considered defamatory. The thing about Korean defamation law is, whether or not the statements are true, you can still sue for defamation.

These defamatory remarks from Defendant A were posted in Facebook group A in regards to the blog posts Asian Men Are Sexy, How To Rent a Seoul Oppa and Oh My Oppa. I’m writing it exactly how it was written, spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes included.

1. “people are allowed to be grossed out by the prospect of paying someone to hang out with your because they’re good looking. I feel equally as grossed out about anyone using any kind of escort service. This one just has an extra layer of racial fetishisation in the mix.”

2. “that post should be grounds for removal from this group, blatent racism.”

3. “people are just shocked at the content they’re seeing on her blog. it’s not often that orientalism is so in your face.”

The above statements are considered defamatory for calling me racist, accusing me of using escort services (which are ILLEGAL in Korea), saying that I racially fetishize [Korean men], and also accusing me of being an orientalist. They were also posted directly underneath my blog posts so it’s very obvious they were talking about me.

According to Korean law, it would fall under Defendant A to prove these statements as true. Which they couldn’t possibly do since 1) it’s not true and 2) they can’t find proof because it’s not true.

Once the police located Defendant A, they called their workplace. According to what I was told, Defendant A didn’t remember me.

After some time they “remembered” what they had done then felt “remorseful” about what they did. They insisted they wanted to call me immediately to apologize so I would drop the case. (I honestly believe they weren’t sorry for what they did at all… just sorry they got caught.)

Unfortunately, the officer working on their case decided that they were simply “expressing their opinion” and the case went to the prosecutor for further investigation. Which means it was the end of the line for me unless I want to sue this person in civil court. And I chose to just leave it alone because at the end of the day, my peace of mind is more important than spending any more time in that negativity.

Defendant B

After the initial investigation, the defamation suit was sent to the police station where Defendant B lives. I will next present the comments made by Defendant B. Again these comments are all typed out exactly the way they were written with spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes.

1. “the way you worded this makes it sound nasty. Sorry, but that’s my opinion. It sounds like youre fetishizing these men and selling their bodies.”

2. “Yeah her blog is a mix fetisism and racism and bad writing but go off i guess”

3. “lmao she didn’t even read my comment. She just saw it wasn’t positive and blocked me. What a dunce“

4. “its not about being annoyed its about calling out blatant racism“

According to Korean law, it falls on Defendant B to prove their comments against me are true. Defendant B also had the additional charge of Contempt. Following quote 4, the comments that fall under contempt state:

5. “And its entertaining as hell. If she didn’t block all these people, it would have stopped with us simply commenting and saying we didnt like it.”

6. “These are her words. Dont tell me that she doesn’t deserve bashing.“

When they were finally found by the police, Defendant B told me and the police they wouldn’t apologize or pay compensation money. In addition, the police insisted we work this out between ourselves. Luckily, I was smart enough to record the phone call between us.

The Phone Call

I’m not going to get into too many details of the phone call because Defendant B is honestly the most exhausting person I’ve ever come into contact with. They pretty much had a 33 minute conversation with themselves and I just barely spoke just 6 minutes of it. It mostly consisted of long winded explanations of nothing, tangents, and cutting me off when I did try to speak.

1. “….what I have in my phone is that I just gave you my opinion that the way you worded your post was a little but iffy, that it sounded like sex tourism.”

Gina Bear’s Note: Alas, a rewording of what was said in the original Facebook comments… 🙄

2. “…I’m genuinely sorry that it hurt your feelings…”

Gina Bear’s Note: I didn’t know words could write themselves… Fascinating…

In the comments that follow, I’d also like to mention I asked for monetary compensation for the mental/emotional stress, damage to my reputation, money spent on legal advice and translation paperwork, as well as loss of revenue. This is my right as the victim. Unfortunately, Defendant B became very upset and insisted I was trying to extort them.

3. “And how many people did you call the police on out of those 300 comments? So you’re gonna try and get how much money out of it? And I’m assuming you’re on an E2 visa, right? I know as of 41 weeks ago, you were not on an F visa. I just don’t understand why you would want to cause this trouble. Like in other people’s lives.”

Gina Bear’s Note: Pero like… What does my visa have to do with Defendant B saying rude things about me online? I’d also like to add this is them confirming they looked through all my social media because they’re making reference to my Instagram despite having blocked them on all social media platforms long before this phone call.

4. “This is a service that many people would have used if you didn’t talk about men’s penises in it.”

Gina Bear’s Note: Where in Seoul Oppa does it mention anything about anyone’s penis?

5. “I guess I just have certain values that come from being an American that maybe are different than yours. I am pretty disappointed that someone from my country that has this value of freedom of speech would call the police on someone from giving their opinion.

Gina Bear’s Note: Freedom of speech would be speaking out against Trump building a wall on the border of Mexico and asking why the government doesn’t do more to help homeless veterans. Freedom of speech dictates certain rights, and you can say what you want, but last I heard, you can still be held accountable for your words. Also, this is Korea, not America. We may come from the same country, but my mother (who is an immigrant from Mexico) taught me values of choosing my words carefully, empathy, and kindness which I use in my interactions with people, even online.

And as you can see from the transcription of the original Facebook comments, Defendant B wasn’t giving an “opinion” or “constructive criticism”. It looked to me that they were truly enjoying being awful on the internet.

This case wrapped up with Defendant B also not being found guilty and with me discovering the police didn’t investigate the contempt charges and the judge had to send the file BACK. Which made me have to relive the entire case all over again. 

The Countersuit

After the phone call, Defendant B sent me a text message informing me they were suing me for blackmail, talking down to them, and extortion.

Why they didn’t just take the not guilty verdict as a win and move on with their life is a mystery. In some situations like these, there are a few reasons why this might happen like:

1. They are doing it just for revenge.
2. They have displaced anger.
3. People who have the victim mentality believe the world owes them something.
4. They have an unhealthy hatred or jealousy due to not where they want to be in life.

I honestly wasn’t afraid of getting in trouble because I knew I did nothing wrong. Where I had time in that 33 minute conversation to extort, blackmail, or talk down to them is a fruitless investigation for the Scooby Doo and the Mystery Machine Crew.

Since I also knew ahead of time the countersuit was coming I had more than enough time to provide all essential documentation, paperwork, and legal advice.

Update: As of January 21, 2020, I have been acquitted of all charges in the countersuit.

But I would like to add it legitimately made me sick to my stomach that although Defendant B is blocked from all my social media, they still had recent photos of me. And I definitely made it a point to let the investigating officer know this person is social stalking me.

This has been an ordeal and anyone who might be struggling with anything in their lives, talking to someone is a first great step. I highly recommend using the Better Help app.

In Conclusion

From the bottom of my heart, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of my friends, fans, and even complete strangers who defended me and sent screenshots. To everyone that has listened, given advice, and lent me their support through this entire ordeal—I truly could not have made this through without any of you. Again, thank you. Also, shout out to my girl, Lauren from Wayfaring Flaneur who helped me edit this enormous post.

I also believe Seoul Oppa and Oh My Oppa are incredibly smart business-wise. Thanks to BTS and the Hallyu wave, they’re locating trends and capitalizing. These men offer their tourism services in exchange for money (and most are college students, aspiring actors or singers). Both companies are banking off the Korean wave and I think what they’re doing is great. They’re providing a fun and safe way to tour Seoul and make new friends. And if there was any city in America offering hot tour guides to take me around and be my instahusband for the day… GIRL, you best believe I’m gonna jump on that.

In regards to the blog post, Asian Men Are Sexy, written six years ago, I still stand by what I said. Nothing has changed except me adding external sources to back up what I’ve been saying for YEARS.

Sadly, my bullies honestly believed it was super easy to say whatever they wanted online without fear of repercussions. While in their home countries, they may have gotten away with it, in Korea, defamation laws are no joke. Police don’t play when it comes to people’s images and reputation. The Cyber Police can and will come for you.

Going through this taught me many things, but it also changed me. I learned so many important lessons in 2019 that I will constantly carry with me for the rest of my life.

It taught me some people can be downright awful online and feel empowered to do so by being behind a screen. Being an online bully speaks volumes about one’s character. Hurt people usually feel justified in hurting other people. I’m not excusing anything my bullies have done, and I realize they are also real people with their own sets of problems; however, I would like to encourage everyone who wants to write something hateful online to think twice before they do so.

Even though for a time in 2019, my reputation was shot, people kept sending me hate, and I had anxiety through the roof… I learned one of the most valuable lessons of all.

There will be those out there who seek to destroy everything you’ve spent years building. You may even see everything crumble before you in a day. But it doesn’t matter. Create anyway.