IU Takes Meta to US Federal Court to Unmask Anonymous Troll Behind Years of Vicious Lies
Singer-actor IU (real name Lee Ji Eun) has reportedly moved to continue her defamation lawsuit filed in South Korea by seeking a discovery order from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against global tech giant Meta. The move is aimed at tracking down a perpetrator hiding behind the anonymity of a global platform, a strategy that has become an increasing trend among South Korean entertainment industry lawsuits.
The target of the legal action is the operator of an anonymous account active on Threads, the text-based social networking platform run by Meta. According to a petition IU’s side filed under Title 28, Section 1782 of the U.S. Code (28 U.S.C. § 1782) on the 15th (local time), the account repeatedly posted at least 52 false posts targeting IU, amounting to systematic defamation.
The reason IU’s side turned to a U.S. court is that under South Korean civil procedure law, a lawsuit cannot move forward unless the defendant’s real name and identifying information are specified. While identifying a domestic platform user is relatively straightforward through a court fact-finding request or warrant, obtaining subscriber information from a global platform based overseas requires going through judicial assistance procedures via a U.S. federal court.
To that end, IU’s side asked the court for permission to obtain from Meta the account holder’s name, email address and phone number, address and date of birth, recent login IP records, and information on the registrant of the payment method on file (excluding the card number itself). They emphasized that they excluded private communication records such as message contents, requesting strictly the “minimum personal information necessary for identification.”
IU’s side grouped the malicious posts spread by the anonymous account into six categories submitted to the court. The account was found to have repeatedly circulated the previously debunked “Pink Shoes” plagiarism controversy, continuing to spread it even after a court ordered the original accuser to pay 30 million won (about $21,700 USD) in damages and police cleared IU of wrongdoing.
The account also fabricated claims tying IU’s use of Cantonese and her donation activities to an unfounded narrative that she was working on behalf of Chinese capital, and mocked the Netflix original “When Life Gives You Tangerines,” which had a production budget in the tens of billions of won, as a total failure overseas. The account further posted claims that IU’s side controls online public opinion and manipulates the media.
In particular, the account was accused of severe defamation for suggesting IU exploited the deaths of fellow artists Sulli, Jonghyun, and Goo Hara for her own promotion, along with malicious posts claiming her song lyrics mock the Sewol ferry disaster and the Itaewon crowd crush.
IU’s side pointed out that the Threads account used only Korean and focused on domestic community issues, noting it is “highly likely to belong to a Korean resident in South Korea.” Citing U.S. case law, they argued that the First Amendment does not directly apply to foreign nationals residing abroad. Even if treated as a U.S.-based case, they stressed that defamation rooted in malicious falsehoods like these could never qualify for free speech protection in the first place.
If the federal court grants the petition, Meta will need to review whether to hand over the account’s subscriber information and IP records. Should that information reach South Korea, the real identity of the user believed to have hidden behind anonymity while posting malicious content is expected to be identified, setting the stage for full civil and criminal legal proceedings.
Source: (A)
