President Lee Jae-myung said Tuesday that "acts of deliberately spreading false information that cause social confusion and economic damage must be tracked down and severely punished without fail."
The president made the remarks on X, formerly Twitter, while sharing an article reporting that police had identified 10 individuals under investigation in connection with the spread of a false post claiming that "the government will force the sale of dollars."
According to the shared article, police who had received a complaint over the false post — which claimed that "the government will force the sale of dollars in response to the Middle East-driven economic crisis" — identified 14 accounts and 10 account holders the previous day. One of them was a soldier and was handed over to the military police. The others included self-employed individuals and company employees, but none were employees of financial institutions or public officials. The original disseminator reportedly stated, "I also saw it elsewhere."
Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yun-cheol filed a complaint with police on the 2nd of last month, saying, "Claims have emerged that the government will force the sale of dollars in connection with mentions of an 'emergency financial and economic order' to respond to the crisis from a prolonged war in the Middle East, but this is clearly fake news that has never been discussed."
President Lee stated, "Spreading false information that harms the public is neither freedom of expression nor a matter for tolerance." He added, "A joke? A prank? Killing people and destroying the order and values of the community is a serious crime that must be severely punished, even if done as a joke or for fun."
Lee also added, "I should send some pizza to the hard-working police investigation team."
