An American influencer has drawn widespread criticism in South Korea after posting an unblurred video of a Seoul subway employee who confronted her group over fare evasion.
Victoria Prince claimed the employee had sworn at them, but the worker denied the allegation and subsequently filed a complaint against her for alleged insult and defamation.
While Ms Prince has since admitted that posting the video was a mistake, she claimed that the footage was redistributed by another person, fuelling an online “witch hunt” that led to her receiving death threats.
The incident reportedly took place at about 12.30pm on 7 Sept at Myeong-dong Station in Seoul.
Source: Google Maps, for illustration purposes only
Ms Prince was travelling with her boyfriend, fellow influencer Alessandro Canale, and a Korean friend.
Mr Canale and the friend entered the station using a single tap of one transit card, prompting a station worker to stop them for fare evasion.
The group protested but eventually paid an additional fare of 48,050 won (around S$46), 31 times the standard 1,550-won (S$1.50) single-ride fare.
Ms Prince filmed the employee during the dispute and later uploaded the footage to TikTok and Instagram without blurring his face.
She titled the video “The worst person we met in Korea” and accused him of racial discrimination.
Source: The Korea Herald
The video quickly attracted criticism from South Korean social media users and has since been deleted.
As the video circulated online, the Seoul Metro employee sought legal assistance from the Allbaleun Union, the company’s third-largest union.
With the union’s support, he formally filed a complaint with the South Korean authorities on 8 Sept alleging insult and defamation.
The union also disputed Ms Prince’s claim that the employee had sworn at her group, saying he had not used abusive language.
Song Si-young, head of the union, said dealing with fare evasion involving foreign passengers could be challenging because of language and cultural differences.
“Despite the circumstances, our employee handled the situation responsibly and followed the rules,” he said.
The union added that it would continue supporting the employee in pursuing legal action.
In a video posted on 12 Sept, Ms Prince gave her account of the confrontation and acknowledged that her boyfriend and friend had entered using the same transit card.
She said the group mistakenly believed that a rule used on South Korean buses, where one card can be used to pay for multiple passengers, also applied to the subway.
According to The Korea Herald, a single transit card can be used to pay for up to 30 passengers travelling together on a Seoul bus. The same arrangement does not apply when passing through subway fare gates.
Source: @vprincemusic on TikTok
Ms Prince said the group had three transit cards between them, but claimed one could not be topped up.
She alleged that the station worker then approached the group “aggressively”, asked them to follow him, and told them to pay an additional fare without initially explaining what they had done wrong.
The group repeatedly asked what rule they had broken so they would not make the same mistake again, but the employee allegedly told them it was “common sense”.
Ms Prince further alleged that after the group paid the additional fare, the employee grabbed the money from the counter and swore at them.
She said this prompted her to begin filming, explaining that she was accustomed to recording confrontations in the United States as a form of protection.
The Allbaleun Union has denied her account, saying the employee did not use abusive language during the encounter.
Ms Prince acknowledged that posting the video publicly was a mistake, saying she had done so in the heat of the moment.
She said someone later contacted her to warn her about posting an identifiable person online in South Korea, after which she deleted the footage.
However, Ms Prince alleged that a South Korean man had already downloaded the video and subsequently redistributed it with the employee’s face still visible.
She claimed the person continued circulating the clip on social media and contacted South Korean media outlets about the incident.
Ms Prince described the subsequent backlash as a “witch hunt”, claiming videos involving her boyfriend, as well as clips she said did not actually show him, were shared online to intensify criticism of the couple.
She also said previous videos she had made about experiencing racism in South Korea were taken out of context and portrayed as accusations against South Koreans as a whole.
Source: @vprincemusic on TikTok
Ms Prince claimed she, her boyfriend, and her friends subsequently received slurs and death threats.
“There’s nothing that I can do or say to change these people’s mind. It’s already made up,” she said.
While acknowledging that she disagreed with the way she had handled the original incident, Ms Prince said she could not take it back, describing the backlash as “the most traumatising thing” she had experienced on social media.
Source: @vprincemusic on TikTok
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Featured image adapted from The Korea Herald and @vprincemusic on TikTok.