Johnny Somali, an American social-media streamer known for desecrating a monument to women forced into sexual slavery during World War II, was sentenced to six months in prison in South Korea on Wednesday, in one of the harshest penalties handed down in the country for pulling stunts online.
He was convicted by a court in Seoul on several charges, including obstructing a business and distributing sexual deep fakes, according to local news media. A court official confirmed the sentence but the verdict was not immediately available.
Somali, 25, whose legal name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael, is an online personality who specializes in producing “rage bait” — chosen as 2025’s word of the year by the Oxford University Press, and defined as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative or offensive.”
His stunts involved blasting music in public, yelling at strangers and vandalizing a small business in Seoul. He was arrested in Japan for trespassing on a construction site in Osaka in 2023, and was fined the equivalent of about $1,000 for disrupting a restaurant there with loud music.
He drew widespread condemnation in South Korea in 2024 after he posted a video of himself kissing the “Statue of Peace,” a bronze monument in Seoul of a woman sitting on a chair with an empty chair next to her. It commemorates the comfort women of World War II, a euphemism for those forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military.
The South Korean authorities charged him at the time with being a public nuisance and barred him from leaving the country. It was unclear whether he was convicted on a charge related to that episode. Prosecutors had originally sought a three-year sentence, and at some point his YouTube account was terminated.
“I’m remorseful, I’m sorry for my crimes,” Somali said at court on Wednesday, local media reported. He was not reachable for comment and it was not immediately clear if he has an attorney.
Other online provocateurs have been punished for their quest for viewers. In January, the Philippines deported to Russia a YouTuber, Vitaly Zdorovetskiy, who was accused of harassing people, petty theft and hijacking a tricycle taxi.
Jin Yu Young is a reporter and researcher for The Times, based in Seoul, covering South Korea and international breaking news.
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