The image spread everywhere: South Korean media supposedly erasing the face of Hong Myung-Bo, the coach who led South Korea to a group-stage elimination at the 2026 World Cup. The story sounded perfect — a country so furious with its coach that it even censored his face on television. The problem is that it never happened. 😱
It all began with the British outlet SPORTbible, which reported that the state broadcaster KBS had blurred Hong’s face during the broadcast of his resignation press conference. The outlet even added that “Korean broadcasters use that method with people involved in controversies”. The article was replicated on dozens of sites, reached social media in Spanish, English, and Portuguese, and millions of people shared it convinced they were seeing a sign of the level of anger unleashed by the sporting failure.
This is a report from a few days ago on South Korea’s KBS News. There is no blurring of the South Korean national team manager’s face, nor is there any content intending to harm him. pic.twitter.com/2ZfcH7620e
— 용이형 (@yong2koya) June 28, 2026
But neither KBS nor any other broadcaster used any censorship at all. From the moment Hong left the press room, his image appeared with complete clarity in every broadcast. What went viral was, quite simply, fake news that nobody verified before sharing. 😓