Hanni Wins Damages Case Against Two Malicious Commenters

NewJeans member Hanni has partially won a civil damages lawsuit against two online commenters over malicious posts made following her 2024 National Assembly testimony.

According to reporting published October 1, the Seoul Western District Court ruled in July that each defendant must pay Hanni ₩100,000 in damages.

The comments were posted on an article about Hanni’s October 15, 2024 appearance as a reference witness at a National Assembly audit, where she spoke about workplace harassment she said she experienced.

The defendants’ comments targeted Hanni’s Australian background and Korean-language ability and included claims that she was suffering from paranoia or raising the issue for financial gain.

The court distinguished those remarks from ordinary criticism.

It found that while expressing a critical opinion about another person is not inherently unlawful, the comments at issue contained insulting or contemptuous personal attacks and therefore warranted compensation for emotional harm.

One defendant argued during the proceedings that the comment did not violate accepted social norms, but the court rejected that argument.

The ruling comes from a separate civil case and should not be confused with the earlier government decision concerning Hanni’s workplace-harassment complaint.

In November 2024, the Seoul Western District Office of the Seoul Regional Employment and Labor Office closed that matter after determining that Hanni was difficult to classify as a worker protected by South Korea’s Labor Standards Act.

The July civil judgment instead concerns whether the two commenters were liable for the content of their own posts.