Court tells Kim Soo-hyun to narrow request to remove 45 Gaseyeon YouTube videos

A court has asked actor Kim Soo-hyun to narrow the scope of a request to take down YouTube videos produced by Gaseyeon, short for Garosero Yeonguso, after Kim sought the bulk removal of 45 clips.

Seoul Central District Court's Civil Division 51, presided over by Chief Judge Hwang In-seong, held a hearing Wednesday on Kim's petition — filed in September against Gaseyeon head Kim Se-eui — seeking the deletion and prohibition of YouTube videos, according to legal sources.

At the hearing, Kim's legal team argued that 11 of the channel's 2,000 videos — those with the highest view counts — contained Kim's image alongside expressions such as "pedophilia," "obscenity," "perversion" and "Kim who led Kim Sae-ron to her death," and requested the removal of 45 videos in total.

Kim Se-eui's side countered that there was no showing that the videos contained false information about Kim and that the underlying facts were still being contested in ongoing criminal proceedings, arguing the scope of the removal request was too broad.

The court said the videos targeted for deletion appeared to contain "advertisements and other issues beyond content related to the petitioner (Kim Soo-hyun)" and ordered Kim's side to specify and narrow the scope of the request.

The court added that it had doubts about "whether the fact of an indictment with detention in the criminal case alone is enough to determine that the content is clearly false, and whether we can find defamation based on false facts when the matter is still being argued in criminal proceedings."

The court also said Kim appeared to be raising the claims belatedly due to personal social standing and interests, and that a broad application would make it difficult for the court to assess the sincerity of the claims.

The court added that, to reach a conclusion, there would need to be special circumstances justifying the removal of entire videos despite the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression.

The court asked Kim's side to submit a revised, narrowed list of videos by Nov. 20, and set Dec. 11 as the deadline for Kim Se-eui's side to respond. The court said it would review both parties' positions before issuing a ruling.