Streamer 'Troll' Johnny Somali Found Guilty on All Counts, Sentenced to South Korean Prison Labor Camp For Public Nuisance Crimes
cross-posted from: https://piefed.zip/c/news/p/1395876/streamer-troll-johnny-somali-found-guilty-on-all-counts-sentenced-to-south-korean-prison-l
Ramsey Khalid Ismael — better known as Johnny Somali, the infamous American streamer arrested in Japan, Israel, and South Korea for his provocative behavior — has been imprisoned in South Korea.
https://www.ign.com/articles/johnny-somali-sentenced-to-jailOpen linkView original on sh.itjust.works575
Comments172
Good, these are the types of guys that go "It's just a prank bro" or "It's a social experiment" except it isn't. It's just you being an inconsiderate jerk.
yeah, the kind that sets you on fire, shoots your wife and sells your children to Epstein, then goes "it's just a prank bro".
There's tons of light-hearted, harmless pranks out there. A good laugh where everyone goes away a little bit happier.
This guy and his ilk on the other hand intentionally antagonise people to the point where they feel the need to defend themselves. Just because someone is out and about in public doesn't mean they're a free target for you to be shitty with them. Everyone has - or at least should have - the right to be unbothered in public by leeches like him.
People should also have the right to fight back with extreme prejudice if these morons lay hands on them first.
100% - but I meant the self defense part when they haven't actually touched you, just gotten to the point where their actions can constitute harassment.
The defence would be that they felt their lives were being threatened by the persistent harrassment.
And given there was no physicality, that court case could go either way...
The point I'm trying to make is that people should be free of prosecution if they are being aggressively harassed, both physical and verbal. It used to be, you ran your mouth, you would get a punch in the face to knock some sense back into you. Immediate consequences for stupidity.
People who say "violence is never the answer" probably never got bullied or harassed themselves.
They'll moralize about "just tell on them!" But that doesn't do anything, and the harassment only gets worse after that.
Throughout my life, I've consistently gotten in more trouble for sticking up for myself than I've ever seen my bullies or harassers get in. It's like the system wants us all to be pushovers and peons, not deserving even the ground beneath our feet. Or maybe I've just been tagged from birth as a "peasant" and therefore never been allowed to have a spine.
But honestly, you can see how much damage this is doing to society. "Violence is never the answer" means we have to tolerate intolerance. It gives free license to bigotry, and forces us to appease.
Violence was certainly the answer back in WWII. Nobody was gonna stop the Nazis simply by asking nicely.
But for decades now, people haven't even been allowed to fight their bullies. And it shows...
Oh I agree. I'm just pointing out that currently, courts require physicality to happen for an overwhelming majority of physical self defense responses.
It's all Warewolf Jones style pranks where it's just a horrible drug fueled crime that will get you time in county jail even if they can't convict.
There are a lot of enablers, the viewers that find all that bullshit funny. Guilty by association, I suppose
I think the viewers of streams like his should get a swift kick in the nuts or vag and maybe kept from reproducing because nobody consuming his content is a good person.
Like, you're right the streamers getting money by acting like assholes are only making money because of the audience. Said audience members are just as shitty as people.
Hopefully they are just young and dumb and will grow up and get smarter. But yeah, they could just be shit.
like, fuck people who watch these absolute shitheads, but I don't really buy that. people look at car crashes. i don't think reckless drivers are "enabled".
I don't think a car crash is an apt comparison in this case, that is usually an accident and not something easy to ignore and pretend it didn't happen - it affects everyone who wants to use the road where the crash happened. Nobody is clapping and cheering.
What this asshole does isn't an accident, it's intentional. People follow him expecting bullshit and praising him for that. He's akin to people who like to drive recklessly and post and brag about it online.
Yeah, still doesn't deserve slavery for it
I interpret this as a nastier form of community service. He didn't get the three year sentence, he got six months. He also partly brought this upon himself, as per the article when he was bragging online about how he wouldn't serve a day in jail. They decided to make an example of him. Also, any South Koreans that I have met are unfailingly nice people, but in their core, they are a hard and pragmatic people.
You're defending slavery here. It's the same problem with the US system.
I'm not saying prison time isn't warranted, just that slavery is not an appropriate form of punishment or rehabilitation.
That's the tricky part about having morals is they extend to people I don't like like this guy.
I'm not defending slavery at all. I'm just attempting to explain why it is. Attempting moral relativism, because South Korea has a unique history and people which led to the way they interpret their punishment system.
You must understand the American South had a unique history and people which led to the way they....
My wife and stepdaughter are from Africa, I understand the racism. Have you ever considered that I was mocking extreme moral relativism? My question is, why are you passing judgement on the South Koreans?
For the record, I think that the Scandinavian model of rehabilitation is the best way to work with most prisoners.
I pass judgments on all governments when it comes to violating human dignity.
You try to make this a race thing is fucking weird. I'm judging a government's actions not the entire population of South Korea.
And when it comes to human rights I take an absolutionist stance on morality. Slavery is never okay
labor camp is the most desired prison assignment in the US. he's getting the version guys spend years doing good behavior and extra service to qualify for in the US. I'm not saying it's good, great, or moral, but at least its not US prison because we run the worst prisons in the world.
amazing.
He got 6 months, so he wasn't too far off, unfortunately.
at the end of the day, his only crime is being annoying. He didn't kill someone, didn't steal anything, etc. So 6months seems fair.
And it's six months of hard labor without access to a smartphone. He'll either lose his mind or actually reconsider his life choices.
Plus he had to register as a sex offender in Korea, and thus has to register in America on his return or face 10y, so who's got money on him failing to register?
Under the Trump administration I don't think he will have any problems with not registering.
He's not white though
Asap Rocky wasn't white either. You get a pass from Trump if you're famous enough.
If we're lucky, he will annoy the wrong person and get the shit kicked out of him. Maybe he'll learn.
Mf was so annoying they sent him to the gulag
If they do a prisoner exchange with North Korea anytime in the near future, they should send this guy to them. Just because. Maybe it will teach the arrogant US citizens to behave better in other countries.
Note, I'm not saying that about the US citizens that are considerate human beings.
As a prank.
Exactly. It's just the natural consequences of a social experiment.
Apparently he kissed a statue of a woman that was built as a memorial to all the south Korean women that were raped by the Japanese during their colonial rule. In case anyone was wondering what he did to end up in jail.
I'm willing to bet he knew exactly what that statue was a memorial for.
"and performing lap dances on said statue" per the linked article
fuuuuk this guy
too bad it wasn't where they cane you for stupid shit
I would watch that video
This guy is like a reverse hostage. Countries will threaten to release him if they don't get what they want.
It's an SCP. The containment procedure is to livestream his location at all times and make it legal for everyone to beat him up.
Maybe outlawing people needs to come back as a penalty.
Now that he's convicted, an interesting question might be "is there enough evidence to convict him in other countries who have extradition treaties with South Korea?"...
I have limited sympathy for people who make their living by bothering people.
Probably, but that's generally not done. He's been convicted and after he serves his sentence he'll be deported, which means he probably won't be given a visa to enter any other country.
He will also be on the sex offender registry, so definitely no visa.
Japan probably won't do anything more. I believe he has an entry ban for some time here (probably 5 years from whenever he was gone), but I don't recall the exact details.
He is now on the sex offender registry, which I think blocks entry automatically.
Norwegian philosopher Arne Ness said it best:
"There is no freedom without responsibility - in fact, the two are intrinsically the same."
Swedish philosopher Ane Nuss once said, “pffft”.
My anus says that 12 times a day.
Only 12? amateur numbers. You need more fiber in your diet.
Norway took credit for that comment and as a result we have the "puffin".
From the country that brought you Klarna and "The Capitalist Manifesto", everyone.
This made my day. He thought he was untouchable and now is in a forced labor camp for 6 months.
Dude is just one of the worst humans.
Forced labor camps in South Korea is just a legal term.
https://www.corrections.go.kr/corrections_eng/1905/subview.do
They're not cracking rocks with sledgehammers in the desert.
he likely will continue doing this once he gets out, hes not unique, i remember at least 1 or 2 other influencers who are like him, that got either shot or jailed and are committed to continue the charade.
Now all I want to see is the video of him getting punched.
Now I used to like RWJ, but it did become a bit cringe and corporate over the years, so I'm genuinely surprise how watchable that video was.
The great tragedy is that S Korea commuted his 3 year potential sentence to just 6 months.
You can do that?
Wow, I never even knew that was a thing
Appeal is still possible and likely. But yea I agree, it's a crazy low sentence
For a nonviolent crime?
Punitive justice isn't justice. In the case a short sentence is appropriate. He's punished for 6 months and then barred from the country. How would the cost of 3 years of imprisonment benefit South Korean citizens? Seems like an unnecessary cost.
My opinion would change if it was a violent crime.
And don't misinterpret me. I don't like the guy at all, I just dislike governments and unnecessarily long prison sentences more
I would generally agree with you. Unfortunately this is the system we have and I will admit, there is a personal pleasure in seeing consequences for this shit. In general I am also for prison abolition and restorative justice. I'm not as principled on this as I would like, I guess. That's definitely a point for me to keep working on. I do however wonder what would make someone like this... rehabilitate.
Having said that, I will say the sharing of sexual deepfakes is definitely violent in an already extremely misogynist world where violence against women is often based on ideas of ownership of women's bodies and violence. There is a specific sort of violence to it that I can not fully comprehend as a masc person, but that is definitely violent in nature. Not just violating, but explicitly violent. This act only further contributes to the underlying violence of misogyny, I think is what I'm getting at.
Thanks btw for your response, I think you make a good point.
Oh wait a minute I only heard about the statue bit, the deepfakes does change my mind a bit. It's certainly not victimless in that case. I'm still not comfortable with 3 years, but more than 6 months seems more appropriate in thay case
Yeah he got off really light apparently. The prosecution wanted 3 years so 6 months seems way off. Makes an appeal seem almost inevitable.
I'll be glad when everyone forgets about this guy in two days and I don't have to see his dumb face in my feed anymore.
Literally never heard of them until just now.
Used to frequent a streaming site for telestreaming robots. I remember the owner getting excited when Ice Poseidon contacted them because of his popularity, thinking it would help traffic. Community warned her it was playing with napalm. She invited him anyway. It only attracted a shitload of griefers, incels and filth that never fully went away after he quickly became bored and left. Site was never the same.
This piece of shit was somehow even more annoying so you love to see it.
Finally some good news in 2026
ahahahahaha
fafo
Sounds like he deserved it
I know this would be cruel and unusual but live stream him the entire time and donate proceeds to relevant charities.
Unusual for sure...cruel...I could maybe make arguments that it's passable. Lol
Dude's like all you hate about social media craze and tourist's exceptionalism in one person. Find out part may seem sweet at last, but he is a mere symptom waiting for reproduction unless there are enough barriers in place he won't be able to fall through. Barriers in not taking him behind the bars alone or at all, but educating, demotivating, ostracizing and deplatforming.
Just cut his balls off and send him up North.
I don't think north Korea would keep him as prisoner. Unlike Otto Warmbier he has no fans or sympathy from anyone, so no Western politician would gain anything from negotiating his release with North Korea.
FAFO 4 U LOL
A South Korean prison labor camp seems a fitting destination for all influencers and YouTube trolls.
Good, idiots like this deserve to face the consequences of their actions
Ooh, do North Korea next.
Video 1 - "I twerked at kim family's big statue and gave them the finger lol"
Video 2 - "Forced labor camp shenanigans lol"
Video 3, visibly malnourished and beaten - "About to face the death squad, but i'm gangsta lol"
Only 6 months tho we think
six months in a South Korean work camp filled with actual criminals that have a great disdain for foreigners. oh, they racists too.
I think he'll leave SK and never come back when he's finally released.
He will also be a registered sex offender and not allowed back.
Keep in mind, it's only 6 months. Hollow victory.
Spending 6 months of your life in prison is not insignificant. Incarceration is a serious punishment.
He has to register as a sex offender when he eventually gets deported to the US... lmfao
So you're saying he has a future career in government?
Nope. The orange man only like pink people.
Labour camp is exactly what he needs
They should also seize all his revenue from streaming, as proceeds of crime. And fine all the streaming platforms for aiding a criminal based on how many viewers they gave him/how much they paid him for being a criminal nuisance. They profited by his criminal activity drawing views to their platforms, and they generated ad revenue off of those criminal activities.
We should then imprison everyone who watched his videos for contributing to his crimes, and everyone who talks about him for providing advertisement to him helping him do his crimes. And at least fine the people whom he offended for allowing for there to be a crime to begin with.
Just throw everyone in jail!
Oh yes, yes, let's take things to completely absurd takes, once someone suggests that the guy shouldn't be allowed to profit off his crime (which he did, clearly), and that the tech companies that have also been profiting off his crimes should also be accountable. It's not like confiscating wealth as 'proceeds of crime' is an actual legal thing in most places or anything!
Defend those corporations! Tech overlords are always innocent!
Twit.
You already did
You just compared a fine for Twitch and YouTube to "throwing everyone in jail". Touch grass.
Congratulations! Today you get to learn about hyperbole and exaggeration!
I'm assuming you're just a troll, much like the asshat you're defending. "Drug dealers should be allowed to keep the money they earned by dealing drugs!", no, they shouldn't, and they generally don't get to. "Streamers should get to keep the profits they made by committing crimes for their audience!", again, no, they shouldn't, but for some reason they generally seem to get to. Guys got a net worth estimated at about $3million, money he's earned by committing criminal acts and recording them. Money that he's paid by American corporations as a benefit of him committing crimes in foreign countries, for the amusement of a (generally) American audience.
Calling that out isn't absurd.
Witnessing and talking about a crime isnt a crime. Providing infrastructure to commit a crime is a crime.
So the DPW is responsible for people who speed or drive drunk? Or is your understanding of the law laughably stupid and childish?
Idk what DPW is. Web platforms are responsible for users posting illegal content. That has always been the case. This is no different.
Section 230 prevents this.
Yes, yes, please tell me how USA laws apply everywhere, and are the greatest laws ever to exist, while your president shits all over your country, disregards all your laws cause he's got the supreme court in his pocket, brags about committing war crimes at your state of the union, and is off threatening genocides etc. Please, do preach on about USA's special exceptional status, while the USA is a total dumpster fire.
I'm sure the south korean court was like "Shit guys! We gotta make sure we try this person by American laws here in South Korea!" and all the other foreign countries in which this asshat has operated. This fucker got paid by American streaming companies to commit crimes in foreign countries. If a foreign country's businesses were paying people to commit crimes in America, I'm sure the Americans would be totally cool trying that foreigner by foreign laws too! They totally wouldn't just gitmo the guy out of existence, or deport him to El Salvador with ZERO due process.
You may be on to something! They SHOULD emulate America! Deport him to North Korea without due process and let the North deal out whatever Justice they see fit. They execute people for merely WATCHING social media there, I'm sure they'd love to have this dipshit.
Jesus Christ dude, take a breath.
If they are American companies, they are protected by those laws. Which a lot of the big tech companies are.
But again, who hurt you? What part of my comment made it seem like I like shitbag Trump?
They are not protected at all by those laws in S Korea... Sure S Korea might not have much leverage to actually do anything to them if they're not stationed there. But US laws mean absolute jack shit outside.. you know, the US.
Right, you just answered your own question. If they are outside America they have no jurisdiction over the American company. If they are inside America, they are protected by 230.
Oh wow, you really are daft. If so, then why does the EU commission keep fining Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and others billions of euros?
okay. controversial opinion time
this was all extremely dickish troll behavior but i don't think A PRISON CAMP is necessarily the most rehabilitative experience. punitive justice doesn't fucking work and nobody deserves to be put through A PRISON LABOR CAMP regardless of how much of an annoyance they were being
in an ideal world there would mechanisms in place to educate this fuckhead without needlessly traumatizing and brutalizing him. sensitivity training. cultural education. empathy and dignity. true justice that will actually change his behavior
but prison camp? i bet he's gonna come outta this twice as much an enormous douchebag
I agree with your sentiment but when a human being is this antagonistic towards every country he visits then it's justified. Definitely a slipper slope moment but just look at this:
It's so hard to be sympathetic to this piece of trash. Plus it seems like he's not even doing 3 years. He's fine.
Its almost impossible to have not at least sentenced him to 1 day after something like that if a prison sentence is legitimately on the table.
Its not about punishing the guy. It is about sending a message that this will not be tolerated. Also, different cultures are different, culturally.
i'm pretty sure torture is just as brutal in every culture. something merely being a cultural difference doesn't immediately make it worthy of keeping around. for example, should we respect japanese culture's weird obsession with sexualizing underage characters? NO! it being different than what we're used to doesn't automatically make it okay
Yea, when something that is apart of your culture causes harm to others, it shouldn't be apart of your culture. Phase it out. Acknowledge it, but phase it out and teach why you phased it out.
We should strive for kindness and care when it comes to culture both of our own and others.
Reading more. It doesn't sound like what type of camp I was thinking. I'm still sure it probably needs updates to ideas and whatnot, but I also don't think punishments should be totally easy. As well as learning what got him in this hot water, he definitely deserves to harshly punished with what would best fit the crime.
The spoiler is he won't learn the lessons he needs to learn from a labor camp. Even in the most idealized form of a labor camp.
Sadly true. I won't lie, I hope by the thinnest of hopes that he does change. I'd never shy from someone wanting to be a better person...dependent on what they have done. But that's just my opinion.
We just need to give those who commit crimes the tools to heal and learn from the hurt they caused. We don't generally, and various unideal things happen after people are released from humiliating, degrading, dehumanizing, and exploitative conditions.
Not getting caught when they do their next crime or hurt the next person is likely on a lot of people's minds. It's happened with my sibling who just continued to escalate their behavior after every incarceration. They never learned their lesson. They never got offered real help. Their life is a revolving door of hurting others and losing their freedom for brief spells. They have no starting point to begin to understand the hurt that they routinely cause. They can't get a job and participate in society even if they wanted to get better and do things right because they face discrimination in hiring and their opportunities are limited.
Personally, I feel that punishment just amplifies the violence and dysfunction, especially in the horrid conditions of the US prison system and forced labor camps like the story we are discussing. Being discriminated against in employment/not being offered opportunities/given a chance by society locks them into crime and destitution. I just can't honestly imagine that brings the good out of many people...
Link shared by somebody else down below, but it's not really a labor camp as you might be thinking. It's more of a rehabilitation into the workforce program.
https://www.corrections.go.kr/corrections_eng/1905/subview.do
Please... he got 6 months for all the shit he pulled. It was so much more than just dickish trolling.
He deserved far more. He got off easy. But it serves two purposes. For one, korea got their message across. Don't come here to fuck around. And second, they don't want to pay for him being in their prison.
In an ideal world, people don't pull this shit to begin with. So we're already well past an "ideal world scenario". It's not this guys first rodeo. These people will never learn unless they face some real, actual consequences.
Yeah. The prosecutors were pushing 3 years. I think he deserves MORE than 6 months.
I have to agree with the last guy. Ideal world, to me, means people can get the support they need to resolve their issues. Ideal isn’t utopia, it’s just as good as we should be doing as a society.
I also think people should get help to resolve their issues.
This guy's issue is that he's just an asshole that never faced any real consequences for his actions and therefore thinks it's ok to go and fuck with people.
This wasn't his first rodeo. Japan gave him a slap on the wrist and deported him. Clearly it wasn't enough.
I don't think expecting people to behave themselves whilst traveling is approaching utopia. That's just common decency.
Instead of prison where we know people commonly experience rape, abuse, neglect, and forced labor — imagine he was forced to live in some new branch of punitive enforcement that sits between prison and mental asylum. A place where he’s forced to sit with counselors, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists… imagine he's treated with dignity as a human, like something is clearly wrong with him, and like we can actually help solve that problem directly for him. He could be sentenced to this place for something like “at most 2 years, unless the authority believes he’s ready earlier.” It’s like a conversion camp, but to help immoral people understand why they might want to act morally within society. Wouldn’t that be a little more ideal than something like prison?
Edit: could even follow-up release with required training for personal finance, hospitality, and the like… to include community service hours and required check-in with a probation officer that works with mental health professionals.
You seem to be under the impression that he's anything other than just a giant asshole. He walks around streaming himself disturbing and fucking with strangers. He know his actions are wrong. He knows he's being an asshole. He has admitted as much with no shame. He doesn't care.
I don't think what you described would be more ideal than prison. I think prison is exactly the place that was constructed just for cases like his. Maybe this time he will learn.
And hopefully others will think twice before trying to be a copycat
Yeah, actually. I don’t believe in essences. Under my personal philosophy, we humans are more like information perturbation machines with extreme sensitivity to initial conditions. It’s close to saying you aren’t anything except the uniquely weighted combination of all your prior experiences, having been processed through the human scope of awareness and memory (if distinguishing the two is even fair here).
That said, nobody is nothing except “just a giant asshole.” I mean that physically, you can’t. You’re stuck in a constant state of becoming something, not being something, which is a necessary consequence of having your human awareness.
The boys deviance from our expectations has to do with his upbringing. We should be able to use specialist services to counterweight that upbringing. And I’d go as far to say, we really should be taking this approach to punishment. Because our current version of just hiding them away in an isolated brick room where nobody except similar deviants and Correction Officers can reach them… that in particular is a rather barbaric approach, in my opinion.
And what about being “constructed just for cases like this” means it was the right approach? The concentration camps in the holocaust were also constructed for purpose, yet I hope you wouldn’t use the same argument for those.
Yeah well he is in a constant state of becoming an even bigger asshole.
It's sounds like a beautiful philosophy you have. But it's just not applicable to how the world looks like.
And no. I would not use the same argument for fucking nazi concentration camps. Which is a really dumb strawman but you know what. Just for you.
They were not constructed to punish and reform. They were constructed to murder people. People whose only crime was not being "German".
You think they're similar in any way to a South Korean prison? If not, why even being it up?
OTOH maybe this will ground him a bit more and he will be a more self-reflective douchebag.
he has done this many times, and not in korea too.
He's a douchebag that's used to acting as such without consequences (or even with profit). A prison labor camp sounds like exactly the sort of wakeup call this guy needs
Are South Korean prisons that bad?
Could you imagine if he was quietly black sited and came back from lake laogai all "there is no war in ba sing se" upstanding citizen?
Also, I think this is more vocational training anyway, so probably not far off from the educational system you want anyway.
Bad take
I don't know. Maybe a few weeks behind a rock with a whip behind his back might teach him to be mindful of where he is the next time he's going to act like an idiot
South Koreans aren't the Japanese... they're not known for playing around.
Yeah because the Japanese are known for being lenient?
Almost joyfully. And loud singing in the streets.
Whom? The people, or the government?
Serial killers in the same prison might say that it is against the Geneva convention to have a person like him in the same cell block.
That has to be one of the more punchable faces I have seen. And I do not advocate violence. But he might be n exception.
HELL YEAH
He is going in a boy And will come out a hole man
Get rekt.
There's a reason these little piss bucket streamers don't pull this shit in places like UAE or Saudi Arabia. You won't get six months. You just don't come back. Ever.
Good riddance to the little cunt. I hope he gets his asshole resized real good.
Always find it absolutely fucking bizarre when people wish rape on others in the context of justice or social decency. Like rape is a suitable punishment or something.
“You did crime/bad thing! Hope you have crimes committed against you in prison!”
Somali is a shitbag but no where near as bad as a rapist.
like yeah wow that's an entirely horrific statement
you can't just wish rape on people like that's an okay thing. especially if they're literally not even a rapist themself. johnny somali is a scumbag nuisance troll but he's not like an actually dangerous person. this is a very concerning approach to the topic of sexual assault, like i think it says a lot about the person saying it
Pain is the only language some understand. It's unfortunate but it's true.
Man rape doesn’t really have any grey areas. Either you
A. Think no one deserves to be raped, think it’s never justified and is wrong.
B. Disagree with one or more of A.
Guess which group rapist belong in? You could have said “I hope he gets beaten to a pulp” or anything similar but you chose a grossly enthusiastic form of “I hope he gets raped”. Literally rapist mentality to think it’s ever justifiable. What do you think the perpetrators in your scenario would do it to Somali because of justice? No. Because he could either justify it to himself or others. Your outlook on justice and punishment is that of a high schooler.
agreed like hell. like... what the fuck?
Yeah even it being the internet aside, wild people don’t see saying shit like this for the self report that it is and it getting upvotes.
His crimes are literally insulting victims of rape
Since when is insulting the same as actual physically raping someone?
So? Not being an arsehole here, in relation to my reply, what is your point?
Because they are slave states with no regards for human rights?
You have an insanely distorted view of the world.
Yeah, especially when the penalty is reduced or waived according to how closely related you are to the king.
You should inform yourself about the Japanese justice and prison system