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Johnny Somali: 5 things to know about US streamer jailed in South Korea over ‘comfort women’ row
Johnny Somali has been jailed in South Korea after a series of controversial videos sparked outrage.
American live streamer Johnny Somali whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael has been sentenced to six months in prison by a South Korean court after a series of controversial and disruptive videos sparked public outrage.
He’s a 25-year-old American streamer known for causing trouble on camera
Johnny Somali whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael is a 25-year-old American live streamer. He became known online for filming himself doing provocative and disruptive acts in public. Prosecutors in South Korea described this style as "nuisance streaming." He has around 5,000 followers on YouTube and his content has led to bans from several streaming platforms.
He first made headlines in Japan in 2023
Somali first gained attention in Japan where he caused controversy by playing racist songs on trains, making vulgar comments in public and taunting locals with remarks about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Osaka police arrested him in August 2023 for trespassing on a construction site but those charges were later dropped. He was fined ¥200,000 (around £928 or $1,400) for disrupting a restaurant by playing loud music, according to The Japan Times, as cited by The Independent.
After Japan, he travelled to Thailand and Israel. In Israel, he was briefly detained at a protest in Tel Aviv for making inappropriate remarks to a female police officer. He later arrived in South Korea in September 2024.
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The statue incident was what really sparked outrage
The biggest controversy happened in October 2024, when Johnny Somali posted a video of himself kissing and making sexually suggestive gestures next to the Statue of Peace in Seoul's Changdong History and Culture Park. The statue honors Korean women, known as ‘comfort women’ who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese forces during World War II. Around 200,000 women from countries like Korea, China, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan were affected, according to the BBC.
These statues, usually showing a young woman sitting on a chair represents the important symbols of history and have also caused tensions between South Korea and Japan. Somali later apologized and deleted the video, saying that “I want to apologize to Koreans. I didn't understand the significance of the statue,” and said his aim was to entertain his American audience. However, many people did not believe his apology, according to The Independent.
The Seoul court found him guilty on all eight charges
South Korean authorities charged Johnny Somali in November 2024 and barred him from leaving the country. The charges included disturbing people on public transport, causing trouble at a convenience store and Lotte World amusement park, and distributing sexually explicit deepfake content, which he denied, as per BBC.
The Seoul Western District Court found him guilty on all eight charges. The court said that, “The defendant repeatedly committed crimes against unspecified members of the public to generate profit via YouTube and distributed the content in disregard of Korean law," according to The Korea Herald.
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He was sentenced to six months in prison
Prosecutors had sought a three-year sentence and a fine but the court gave him six months in prison and 20 days of detention, citing the “absence of severe harm to victims.”
He was taken into custody after the verdict and banned from working with organizations involving children, teenagers and people with disabilities for five years.
At a March 2025 hearing, he arrived late and was denied entry for wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat. He later said that, “I am an American citizen. And Korea is a vassal state of America," according to The Independent.
