WEBVTT - Consequences 0:00:02.320 --> 0:00:04.320 Did you ever read the tug forums? Did you ever 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:06.480 go there yourself? A little bit? But I tried not 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:09.840 to read too much because it was Taboo's friend from Stanford, 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:12.920 Sean Limb, was living in Korea when the Tajing forums 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:15.840 started accusing Tableau of lying. He remembers what it felt 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:17.720 like at the height of the scandal. But what what 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:20.800 was it like when it was really happening? What was 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:24.640 going on there? Like you ever been in a room 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:28.680 of crazy people, Like there's just the energy of it, 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:33.159 like that weird electricity of people who are volatile and 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.480 you don't know, like if they're going to break things 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:39.879 or hit you or you're going to get paunched. It 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:43.600 felt like that in there, Like these people were so 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:51.120 angry from vice and I heart I'm Dexter Thomas and 0:00:51.240 --> 0:01:07.720 this is authentic. Episode five Consequences. In just three months, 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:10.840 the tai Jano forum had exploded to more than a 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:16.080 hundred thousand members. Users were posting daily, sometimes hourly, and 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.959 the crusade had moved offline. Members were finding anyone even 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:23.399 remotely connected to Tableau and harassing them, trying to find 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:27.479 information that might prove the Tableau was lying. Tableau's family 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:31.000 and friends were being docked, and Tableau himself was under 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.400 intense scrutiny, not just from the forum members, but from 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.520 the public. A lot of people, even some of the 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:40.640 same people who probably enjoyed seeing Tableau on TV. We're 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.880 starting to buy into the theory the Tableau was lying 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:49.240 about his past. On August two, what becomes Tajanio's Day 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:53.440 facto leader by this point, wrote this post saying Tableau 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:55.800 and his family now cannot run away and they are 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:59.880 broken down. Now we need to strike and smash on 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:05.480 the back of their heads with a bird stick. Tableau 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:08.080 says that his label offered to introduce him to a lawyer, 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:11.760 but he'd have to pay for it himself. He decided 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:15.560 to leave the label altogether. So now with no backing, 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.960 no manager, no pr rep, Tableau was on his own, 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:22.839 up against tens of thousands of anonymous forum members who 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:25.720 were determined to take him down. But it wasn't just 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:28.320 the Internet. You couldn't even turn on the evening news 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.520 without seeing his name flash across the screen, and people 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:35.440 were starting to wonder if Tijano was right. It was 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.639 starting to look like an all out war. But it's 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:41.760 hard to call what Tableau was doing fighting. It was 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:46.560 more like complying. When Tajo demanded his school documents, he 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.560 released them. When a major news channel said they were 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.080 going to do an investigative documentary and they wanted to 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.919 interview him, he agreed. When the documentary aired in October, 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:59.240 people watched him cry and try to explain that he 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:02.840 really did go to Stanford. They also watched Tajeno members 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:08.640 explain what it was like investigating Tableau. It's like a game. 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:16.640 It's addictive, it's fun, like being a detective in a 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:21.240 mystery novel. Some members started calling themselves online players, like 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:23.840 this whole thing was a video game and the objective 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:28.360 was to catch Tableau. The media had given Tableau a 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:31.200 forum to defend himself, but that just added fuel to 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:35.600 the fire. After that documentary aired, Tajanio membership doubled to 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:40.000 almost two hundred thousand. Later that same October, the Prosecutor 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:43.080 General in Korea pushed for the national police to finally 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:46.880 get answers. But the thing is, the police had already 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:49.560 been aware of this. Tajen you know members have been 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:53.240 spamming government websites since August, pushing for law enforcement to 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.440 get involved. This, combined with the growing pressure from the 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.880 public at large, finally got the police to start asking questions. 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.840 So Tableau went and got himself that lawyer because it 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:07.640 was clear that this was about to get very serious. 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.000 It wasn't about his fame or his music anymore. Tableau 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:17.040 was now being investigated by the National police for forgery 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:21.039 of a private document, and Korean law's interpretation of forgery 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:23.760 is important here because it's not just about, say, the 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.080 financial harm you do to someone if you forge his 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.960 signature on a check. Korean law is extremely concerned about 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:34.160 the public's ability to trust private documents like contracts or 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:38.120 bank statements or diplomas. So even if Tableau hadn't used 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:41.400 his credentials for a job application or anything, the act 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.640 of flaunting a fake diploma around on national television in 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:48.400 the Korean government size is causing harm to society's trust 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.719 that is punishable by law. If Tableau was found guilty, 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:56.120 that could land him in prison for up to seven 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:59.880 and a half years. This is not this is not 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:04.320 see killer, This is just a cyber deformation. This is 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:07.600 so in He was an officer in the cyber crime 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:10.880 unit in South Korea's National police force. He says the 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.880 decision to investigate Tableau was unprecedented in Korea. There had 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:17.920 been times when the national police got involved in forgery cases, 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:21.400 but this time the police were intervening in a private 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:24.920 citizen's life at the behest of an online mob. But 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:27.039 I got a call from Brugal House at the time, 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:31.000 so everybody watching these cases. Officers got a call from 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:33.599 the Blue House, which is the official residence of the 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.000 President of South Korea, kind of like the White House 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.320 in the United States. They let him know that this 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:42.240 thing needed to be done by the book, no favoritism 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.760 and no delays. I mean, is there any pay just 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:51.400 to ask me to investigate correctly and finish quickly. I mean, 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:54.159 just to put it into perspective, picture the White House 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:58.080 telling the FBI to investigate whether Kanye West really went 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:01.080 to Chicago University because a bunch of people I read 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:04.720 it said he didn't, and then personally calling the lead 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:08.599 investigator to say, hey, you better do this right. It 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.440 wouldn't happen, not just because he's a private citizen. But well, 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.440 like I said in the last episode, who cares if 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:19.720 a rapper lied about their diploma? Well, in Korea, a 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.159 lot of people cared and like I mentioned, lying about 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.599 your diploma is a crime there. And now it was 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:30.440 officers suze job to get the answers that the whole 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:34.440 country was waiting for. Why do you think you were 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.679 chosen for the case? Our producer Stephanie talked to officers, 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:43.200 so my my bost think I'm the smartest because at 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:47.200 the time I'm the only one who has a cybersecurity 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:52.000 degrete and certification. Officers first got into computers in the nineties. 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:54.760 At first, it was mostly a hobby. He did get 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:57.800 himself a gig making websites for K pop fan magazines, 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.520 but that wasn't satisfying to him. What he really liked 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:05.159 was cybersecurity, so we started studying that and in the 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.240 mid two thousands, when Korea's National Police Force announced they 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.920 were looking for cybersecurity experts, he applied and got the job. 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:14.640 By the time the agency picked up Tableau's case in 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:17.160 twenty he'd been there for a couple of years and 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.160 he had the most experience in the entire cyber crime unit, 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:22.960 so it was only natural that the case would go 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:27.400 to him. On an early September morning, Tableau arrived for 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:31.960 his scheduled interrogation at the National Police Agency headquarters in Seoul. 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:36.720 Officers subb spent weeks doing research. He'd collected every document 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:39.200 he could get his hands on, and he knew he'd 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:42.640 be able to catch Tableau in any lie. He also 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:46.480 knew that Taijuanyo and the press would be watching, so 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:49.040 he had Tableau come on a Sunday when the front 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.200 office was mostly empty and the press was less likely 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:55.280 to be snooping around, And even then they had him 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.800 come in the rear entrance just in case. Officers saw 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.600 and a couple other investor gators walk Tableau and his 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:05.280 lawyer into a small office. They all sat down, Tableau 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:08.720 on one side, Officers on the other. They got right 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:12.280 into it, no small talk. Officers started off with the 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:19.680 first line of interrogation pick Korean, English, Chinese, and he's 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:27.320 one of the biggest parts of Tagos conspiracy hinge on 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:31.720 how smart Tableau is or isn't. This meant the officers 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:34.760 would have to test his intelligence, and he figured the 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.680 easiest way to do this would be to compare Tableau's 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.880 actual abilities to the things he'd done on TV. And 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:44.160 officers had a particular baseline in mind all right, now, 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:48.000 this is one of the funniest shows. In two thousand seven, 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:51.000 Tableau went on a variety show where the hosts had 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.320 him play a game It's It's a it's a Korean 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:59.000 food with Scott. He was pretty simple. The hosts would 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:01.880 write down some phrases in Korean and then they'd have 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:05.360 Tableoo described that phrase in all the different languages that 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:12.080 he said he knew. He does English a lot of 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:16.200 stuff in it, and French in l a moon or more, 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:24.360 and Chinese, and on the panel their native English, French 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:28.120 and Chinese speakers to judge how well he's doing. His 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:32.080 Chinese is okay and his French is not so hot. 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:34.720 But everyone sort of makes a joke about it, because, 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.480 after all, this is a game show. The guy who's 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:41.440 judging Tableau is English. Is this Australian comedian and he's 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.400 got this kind of dry humor and he starts critiquing Tableau. 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:53.400 There he gives his caveat, saying that lots of Koreans 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:55.840 who hang out with foreigners probably have the same ability, 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.959 but that all things considered, Tableau speaks pretty good English. 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:04.079 So he's obviously joking here, and people start laughing because well, 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:09.319 Tableau speaks perfect English. This wasn't a particularly notable appearance. 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:12.720 People had seen Tableau speak English before, and he was 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:15.760 now a regular on TV. A couple of years later, though, 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:19.160 as the scandal was in full swing, Tajanio had gone 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:22.840 back to any recording they could find to scrutinize everything 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:26.560 Tableau said on TV, including this show, searching for any 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.880 evidence of lies. And they didn't think any of this 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:34.200 language stuff was funny at all. A post by Truth 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:39.880 is out there on October fift said, overall, his English 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:42.880 skills are really not good, and it's logical to doubt 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:46.199 whether he really was able to finish his graduate level 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:52.160 education and major in English lit. There was so much 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:55.600 talk on the Tajano forums about Tableau's language skills that 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:58.960 officers decided this might be an opportunity to catch him 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:02.800 in a lie. The thing was, tablet was very confident 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:07.320 about his English ability, but French and Chinese he hadn't 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:12.880 used those in forever. So they actually had me speak miraculously. 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:16.480 I just like like speaking in tongues. It came back 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:20.559 to me for that moment. He looked very smart. I 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:26.440 mean he didn't probably if his I one up, but 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:31.400 we know, we knew if he's very smart. They was 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:34.720 just incredible that they had put in so much time. 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:39.319 It spanned every like it spanned everything from my transcript, 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:44.160 my degree, to each member of my family, um, my 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:49.880 mom's childhood, my dad's childhood, every place they worked at 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:56.040 moved to every conspiracy theory involving anybody they know, my siblings, 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:01.040 with my friends I had to verify like kids I 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:03.800 went to school with, gave dug into like my ex 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:09.120 girlfriends and stuff like just it was just incredible the 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:13.120 sheer amount of things I had to talk to the 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:17.280 police about. The interrogation went on for hours. I think 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:20.760 it was very deep cold to sit sit a long 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:25.080 time in those kind of chair, and then I think 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:29.760 his tires. So sometimes around lunchtime, officers called for a break. 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:31.960 Everyone stood up and walked out of the room to 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:35.080 get lunch. Tableau excused himself to go to the bathroom, 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.520 so also had to go, so he followed him. It 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:40.880 was a tiny bathroom, so it was a little awkward, 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:44.440 but the interrogation was officially paused until this break was over. 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:47.400 So opposite, I wasn't gonna say anything to Tableau. He 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:49.600 was just gonna do his thing and leave. But then 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:55.800 Tableau looked at him. He told me in the bathroom, 0:12:55.960 --> 0:13:00.280 doesn't this and if I to a side, he has 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:04.560 the officers. So with this end, if I commit suicide, 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:09.880 he has kind of intention that you want to commits 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:14.479 outside to finish the order of stuff. I said that, 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:21.720 That's what he said, Really, who I remember that? Really? 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.000 Do you remember was there in a point where you 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:28.840 were thinking about that. It's quite possible that there's uh 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:35.800 certain things I may have like compartmentalized. I may have 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.439 hidden it away somewhere. I don't know, but I'm genuinely 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:44.120 shocked that that happened, or that I said that two 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:50.720 the police. I don't remember like trying to kill myself 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:55.920 for or like planning it. I don't remember it. I 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:59.520 just I don't. I mean, like I truly don't remember it. 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:06.720 Tableau and I hadn't really talked about this time period 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:09.360 until this point. This was the time that Tableau had 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.240 told me that he was barely leaving his house. Whenever 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:14.840 I pressed him for more details about his daily life 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:17.920 back then, what kind of things he was thinking and doing, 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:21.240 he'd give me this caveat that he doesn't really know 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.520 that anything he's telling me is second hand. And my 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.680 wife tries not to talk about this because this is 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.920 a this is like pain for her as well. She 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:35.720 did say to me that it wasn't like I was 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:42.320 completely broken down or anything. It just at times felt 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:47.000 like I didn't have a soul, almost like that I 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.720 was just I had been hollowed out and I was 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.880 there but not really. She said that, yeah, like it 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:57.640 was on this stiff my soul had like just disappeared, 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:02.520 and I was just sort of like doing things like 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.800 on autopilot. I gotta tell you the truth. And honestly, 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:08.440 at times like I was confused whether or not I 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:13.120 had dementia. Like I I literally said to myself, did 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:17.280 I imagine going to Stanford? Like? Did I imagine my 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:20.960 life before all of this? You seriously thought that, yeah, 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:26.360 because if the entire world is saying that that's what happened, like, 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:37.160 how am I supposed to make sense of that? I 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:39.760 gotta say here that when Tableau first told me he 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:42.240 didn't remember this period of his life, I was a 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:44.760 little skeptical. Maybe he didn't want to talk about it, 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.800 or more specifically, maybe he just didn't want to talk 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:51.080 about it with me. But when I told Tableau about 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:54.920 him asking the cops for advice about killing himself, the 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:57.800 look on his face told me immediately that this man 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:03.200 was not faking. His face dropped. He was shocked. One 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:06.480 of the few things Tableau had through this entire process 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:10.040 was the sense of who he was, his sense of self. 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:13.240 Even as he started to lose his grip on basic 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:16.320 things like where he lived and what he'd accomplished, he'd 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:20.000 never lost hold of his core. Not Tableau the rapper 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:25.400 or Dan the Stanford graduate, but Tableau Daniel Lee, the son, 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:30.280 the friend, the father, the person who would never ever 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:34.000 waver in that duty. He'd convinced his family this, and 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:38.760 maybe more importantly, he'd convinced himself. But in that room 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:43.760 with me, he found out it wasn't true. He wasn't 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:47.240 as brave as he told himself he was. And for 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:50.200 a few seconds, it was like he wasn't looking at 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:53.000 me anymore. He was kind of looking past me, like 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:55.080 there was a mirror on the other side of the room, 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.560 and and looking at it, he was realizing how much 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.440 closer to the edge he was then he'd been willing 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:07.119 to admit to himself in the bathroom. He looks like 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:11.840 he wanted to cry. Yeah, I charged him because I 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.320 don't know it. You only have to tell me the trust. 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:19.040 After they took a break, officers said he didn't really 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:22.000 notice any other sign of emotion from Tableau. When they 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:24.200 got back to the room and started the questioning again, 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:28.679 Tableau seemed to snap back into focus. He straight faced 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:32.040 and just centered on getting through all the questions. In 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:35.639 the end, the interrogation took about eight hours. Once I 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:38.760 decided he had gotten everything he could from Tableau, everyone 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:42.679 went home for the night. The next day started making calls. 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:46.520 He had to take every statement Tableau made line by 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.639 line and verify if it was true or not. He 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:53.040 also collected more documents. We have to find if this 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:56.800 document is facal on us, so we sent this documents 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:01.520 to other organizations. They sent the important documents to government 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:04.840 forensics labs for verification. They were not going to let 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.119 anything slip to the cracks. Once they got them back, 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:12.760 they analyzed everything. The entire process took about a month, 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:17.480 then getting the finals, and then I kind of had 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:23.040 a confidence that he graduated the stampo APTI analyzing or 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:28.160 In October of the police were ready to announce their 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:32.600 findings at a press conference. They said the Tableau's paperwork 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:37.000 was all legit. The Tableau's claimed that he graduated from 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:39.639 Stanford in three and a half years with a bachelor's 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:43.800 and a master's degree was true. Tableau head never lied. 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:49.560 Tijanyo was wrong. It should have ended there, but it didn't. 0:18:50.440 --> 0:19:17.200 That's after the break In October, the Korean National Police 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:20.919 Agency announced it after a thorough investigation, they had found 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:24.200 no evidence that Tableau had lied about his degree. For 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:27.000 a lot of people, this announcement was enough. If the 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:30.680 highest law enforcement agency in the country said he was innocent, 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:33.760 then maybe Tableau really was who he said he was. 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:37.399 But now tai Jano had a problem. They had pushed 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:40.760 hard for an investigation in the Tableau and this was 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.400 not the outcome they wanted. That wasn't the problem, though. 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:47.280 The police announced they were turning their focus away from 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:50.119 Tableau and toward the people who were making these posts 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:54.760 about Tableau. Taijano's request for an investigation backfired in the 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:59.120 worst possible way. Now they were the target. Why did 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:02.000 you decide to do that? Why did you decide to 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:07.840 pursue the Tajo Because we have to investigate every cases 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:11.760 we got, so I got the post cases from Tajanio side, 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:16.080 and then so of course I have to do my duty. 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:19.320 Tableau wanted the police to look into the people who 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:22.159 had been harassing him in his family for months, and 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:24.399 his words now held more weight given that he had 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:27.159 been officially cleared of what the police now considered to 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:30.720 be bogus charges. His lawyer had already printed out user 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:33.439 names and screenshots of what he considered to be the 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:37.000 worst offenders. He handed everything over the police and was 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:41.080 ready to sue for defamation. In Korea, defamation is a 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:43.959 crime that's punishable by up to seven years in prison, 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:46.560 about the same amount of time that Tableau had been 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:50.320 facing for forgery, and the police took this justice seriously, 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.879 and so this kicked off the investigation into ta Janyo. 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:58.359 Police had looked into online harassment cases before, but they 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:02.400 usually didn't go anywhere. Before this, things that happened online 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:04.720 still kind of felt like they were separate from the 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:12.639 real world. But Toujanyo was clearly very real, and this 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.480 had been a highly public case, so there was a 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:19.200 chance that this could go differently. Within hours of the 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:23.960 police announcing the investigation. Chajano responded on the forum not 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:28.720 to apologize, but to go on the offensive. On October nine, 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:31.440 someone with the user name ce dave Lee made a 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:35.920 new post with all sorts of new accusations against the police. 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:40.959 It read, the police didn't follow their operating procedure rules. 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:45.000 It seems suspicious. We urged the police to conduct the 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:48.960 fair investigation. We were already in the middle of hiring lawyers, 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:55.359 and we promised to actively react to the investigation. Even 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:59.240 they told us doing the investigation, we're going to have 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:03.040 lost against you guys. You guys, Detectiveical not go to Jay. 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:06.280 They asked cut the subillance coming out to Video Equity 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:08.680 so that they can use that evidence to fight a 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:12.199 la go against the police. Detective. So you're kind of 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:16.879 scared because they are threatened us. It seems like not 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:22.000 a good idea to harass the police when they're investigating you, right, 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:29.200 like kep, you kept investigating, Yeah, Officers. Began his investigation 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:31.280 by trying to track down some of the real names 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:34.000 of people posting on Tajanio. In order to do this, 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:36.920 he needed access to the data on Neighbor, the platform 0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:39.879 Tajanio was on because to make an account on Neighbor, 0:22:40.160 --> 0:22:42.359 you used to have to provide a government ID number 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:45.120 when you signed up, so even if you're publicly anonymous, 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:49.040 Neighbor knew who you were. But Neighbor wasn't willing to 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:52.240 just hand over all that personal data for every single member, 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:55.640 so officers so narrowed it down to a smaller list 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:58.800 of the really egregious posters and he got a warrant 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:02.440 for them. Were handed over those addresses and phone numbers, 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:07.120 and officers started calling people up and pretty quickly new 0:23:07.160 --> 0:23:10.879 form threads started popping up with people nervously talking about 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:15.120 being called into the police station. Then, just days later, 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:19.040 tajen Your members logged into their accounts to find that 0:23:19.119 --> 0:23:25.600 the entire tajen Your forum was gone. The police had 0:23:25.600 --> 0:23:28.879 discovered that what becomes the Star of ta Janyo had 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:31.240 used a fake government I D to sign up for 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:35.720 his account, and in Korea that is illegal. At this point, 0:23:35.800 --> 0:23:38.720 police wanted all the data, and Neibor agreed to give 0:23:38.720 --> 0:23:40.920 it to them. Sus says he was about to request 0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:43.600 another warrant to get the site shut down, but Neighbor 0:23:43.600 --> 0:23:46.240 did it for them. At this point, Neighbor figured that 0:23:46.280 --> 0:23:49.000 it was in their best interest to comply with the investigation, 0:23:51.760 --> 0:23:54.520 but it was never going to go that easy. A 0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:58.320 few hours later, a new form showed up. This one 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:03.280 was called naturally ta Janyo two, and people started flooding 0:24:03.280 --> 0:24:06.280 back in. Even some of the old posts were intact 0:24:06.480 --> 0:24:09.960 because a forum member had saved them. This was not 0:24:10.080 --> 0:24:14.560 a shutdown, this was a hiccup in the operation. Ta 0:24:14.680 --> 0:24:21.320 Janyo was back on in full force, but the celebration 0:24:21.720 --> 0:24:24.880 didn't last for long. The police were pulling in members 0:24:25.040 --> 0:24:28.880 one by one for questioning, and of course, the word 0:24:28.920 --> 0:24:31.920 got out if a four member went dark for too long, 0:24:32.520 --> 0:24:35.320 people started wondering if they've been called in and what 0:24:35.440 --> 0:24:39.199 happened to them and who was next. In the span 0:24:39.480 --> 0:24:45.360 of days, the forms moved morphed for righteous euphoria into anger, 0:24:45.880 --> 0:24:50.600 into a slow collective freak out, and they were struggling 0:24:50.760 --> 0:24:54.040 to stay focused. How many user names do you think 0:24:54.080 --> 0:24:58.680 you went through before you started to narrow into the 0:24:58.720 --> 0:25:08.280 people who were worst? More than it took officers months 0:25:08.320 --> 0:25:11.040 to go through all those user names, but by January 0:25:11.080 --> 0:25:14.199 two thousand eleven, he finally narrowed it down to a 0:25:14.280 --> 0:25:16.479 list of people he thought he could charge with an 0:25:16.520 --> 0:25:22.120 actual crime, and how did you decide who was going 0:25:22.240 --> 0:25:25.399 to be the worst of the people who you're going 0:25:25.440 --> 0:25:28.840 to investor? I mean the frequency, how often they post 0:25:28.920 --> 0:25:34.760 pedure and how sedos the contents for without posting, and 0:25:34.800 --> 0:25:39.600 then if this is so to or not. At its height, 0:25:39.840 --> 0:25:43.600 Tanjanio had had around two hundred thousand members, but after 0:25:43.640 --> 0:25:46.159 the shift in public sentiment and the shutdown of the 0:25:46.160 --> 0:25:51.240 original forum, and especially the investigation, the ranks were dropping. 0:25:51.960 --> 0:25:54.800 Tajanio still had tens of thousands of members, but they 0:25:54.800 --> 0:25:57.679 were fighting what was starting to look like a losing battle. 0:25:58.280 --> 0:26:02.280 In January two tho eleven, after three months of interrogating 0:26:02.320 --> 0:26:16.439 Tago members, the police announced the results. Hollow Eleven people 0:26:16.560 --> 0:26:20.560 were being charged with defamation. This announcement happened in January, 0:26:21.320 --> 0:26:23.600 but it would take more than a year to finalize 0:26:23.600 --> 0:26:27.040 everything in court. But before I could go to trial, 0:26:27.680 --> 0:26:31.560 two people came forward and apologized. One person even got 0:26:31.600 --> 0:26:35.200 their family involved. It was a girl and her dad 0:26:35.560 --> 0:26:39.719 showed up to my house. I was like, please, please, 0:26:40.359 --> 0:26:43.359