You Can’t Take the First Amendment With You to Foreign Countries

American YouTuber Johnny Somali

American YouTuber Johnny Somali calls himself a “Political Prisoner in South Korea on trial for Freedom of Speech and Expression.” Instead of being recognized as such by the U.S. State Department, he has learned a couple of civics lessons that perhaps every U.S. citizen should take to heart.

First, the First Amendment isn’t something you can take with you to a foreign country in your carry-on luggage. Its protections don’t apply beyond U.S. borders.

Second: the First Amendment does not give you the right to be a clueless, trespassing, vandalizing jackass anywhere, including here at home.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, if a book about American internet trolls in foreign countries were written today, it could well be titled The Idiots Abroad. Johnny Somali would be the book’s central anecdote, thanks to actions that now have him serving a six-month prison term in South Korea.

In 2024, he posted video of himself twerking in front of and then kissing the sculpture of a woman depicted in front of a “Statue of Peace” memorial in Seoul. Given the larger cultural context, it was an act that was beyond tasteless.

Such installations have proliferated in South Korea and elsewhere in the last 15 years to remember the women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military before and during World War II. Many in Japan still refer to those forced prostitution victims offensively as “comfort women.” The subject has been a long-simmering source of tension between Japan and South Korea; the original Statue of Peace was installed in 2011 – directly across from the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

All of which was apparently lost on Johnny Somali, who apologized and pleaded ignorance. His “don’t know much ‘bout history” defense strains credulity, however, when one considers that he had previously traveled to Japan, where he taunted subway commuters about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. According to the BBC, he dared South Korean residents to fight him, disrupted public transportation, and vandalized a convenience store. He was also detained in Tel Aviv for making inappropriate remarks towards a female officer.

Sorry, Johnny, but vandalism and harassment are not protected as speech rights under the First Amendment. In this country, the First Amendment absolutely did protect the late George Carlin’s act as he enumerated and dramatized the seven dirty words. But no American could tap-dance on top of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier without facing immediate arrest. Even if the Bill of Rights were being written anew today, “internet troll” would not be a free speech defense against trespassing, much less vandalism and harassment.
​
And Johnny, one more word of advice: Maybe you need to find a new schtick. You went to all of this trouble, and you still only had 5,000 followers by the time YouTube banned you? That’s worth about $500 a month. Something to think about while you do your time.

DONATE & HELP US DEFEND YOUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS