Cloud Backlash

This article explores the ongoing issue of bodily security, surveillance, and safety in and around South Korean digital spaces. By focusing on the Nth Room in March 2020, I argue that the rapid growth of digital and cloud-based technologies exacerbates social and political issues in Korea. I use an interdisciplinary methodological approach to critical gender and sexuality studies, data feminism, and Korean feminist scholarship to interrogate the relationship between transnational digital technologies, the deep-seated roots of patriarchy, and the contemporary anti-feminist backlash and conservative political landscape in South Korea. I argue that the cloud-based servers of instant messaging group chats pose a particular case that illustrates the challenges feminist activists face around digital sex crimes and surveillance in South Korea and transnationally.