WOMAD is a radical feministonline community based in South Korea. It has been criticized for extreme anti-male sentiment, including threats of and videos of sexual and physical assault. It split from Megalia, another feminist online community based in South Korea, after Megalia created rules against anti-gay slurs.
Overview
WOMAD split from Megalia on January 22, 2016. It formed due to Megalia issuing a ban on the use of certain explicit slurs against gay men. This change in policy led to the migration of members that do not support transgender ideology, and have a female-centric ideology. WOMAD officially states that they are not women's rights movement activists. WOMAD has caused controversy due to extreme online trolling such as postings that boast animal abuse and show extreme hatred towards transgender people; for this reason, WOMAD has been called "Korean-style TERFs" It was embroiled in a number of accusations for mocking Korean War veterans and labor rights activists. A number of posts mocking the deceased actor Kim Joo-hyuk caused further controversy. Following such incidents, critics lambasted WOMAD as a "hateful website that is aggravating conflict and division of society" among South Koreans. Its tough stance is represented in several places on the web site. It uses red Hakenkreuz symbol in 'thumbs-up' button, with '워념글 추천' written below, meaning 'suggest this as an insightful article' in Korean. Its favicon is a representation of a vulva, with red dotat the center of it representing both period blood and fire. It claims to mirror misogyny in Korean society, particularly Ilbe.
Incidents
Claims of murders targeting men
In 2016, multiple posts appeared on the site, claiming that they have killed men with titles such as "I fed men coffee mixed with car antifreeze liquid", "I killed a man by pushing him into a reservoir" and "I aborted a male baby." The Ulsan Metropolitan Police Agency and the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency started an investigation after receiving police reports on 28 July 2016. Several shutdown requests have been made against the community, but Daum Kakao dismissed the requests stating that "some posts have been hidden, but there is insufficient illegal activity within the community to shut it down".
Child-abuse incident in Australia
On November 19, 2017, an anonymous member wrote a post on the WOMAD forum claiming that she had raped an Australian boy. WOMAD members showed support for the writer, leaving comments saying that they would pay to watch the videos of the sexual assault. News of the post quickly spread online and a petition was started on Cheong Wa Dae’s bulletin board requesting that the person responsible be caught. On November 20, 2017, a 27-year-old Korean woman identified as "Areum Lee" was arrested by the Australian Federal Police in Darwin, Northern Territory in relation to the incident. The suspect is charged with producing child abuse materials. AFP announced that she will remain in custody until a court hearing scheduled for mid-January 2018. According to interviews with the victim's parents, it is suspected that her identification and credentials are fake and that she could have broken immigration and labor laws. WOMAD members actively defended her, claimed that Areum Lee was innocent and conducted an online fundraiser for her lawyer appointment. In addition, they sent a petition to the Australian police to "release Areum Lee" and protested the victim's parents. Many were shocked by this incident.
On July 10, 2018 an anonymous member wrote a post on the WOMAD forum claiming that she has desecrated the host with the picture of evidence. The post was curse-ridden and contained a picture of the burnt host. According to the post, the poster claimed that the very first human being was a female. She advocated based on this that all denominations that claim Adam to be the first human being should be destroyed. This was not popular among Christians, though largely supported on the website.
