Nightmare before Christmas: 'rape announcement' issued at Seoul billboard

This photo shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, shows the profane message flashed at the digital billboard of Lotte Department Store in Jung-gu, Seoul, Tuesday.

A local department store's event to celebrate Christmas through its digital billboard has gone horribly wrong, as it ended up with an anonymous threat to "rape all Korean women" being flashed on the digital screen in central Seoul.

According to local police, the message saying "I'm going to rape all Korean women" appeared around 10 p.m. Tuesday on a giant screen on the exterior of Lotte Department Store in Myeong-dong, Seoul. The department store had been holding a Christmas event that allowed anyone to flash a message up on the board by using a QR code.

Lotte officials took down the message, but not before several people took pictures of it and shared it online. The event has been discontinued, and the digital billboard in question is currently showing Christmas-related videos.

"There's a system to filter profanity, but the message in question was not filtered for some reason," the department store said, adding that Lotte plans to seek Police action in relation to the incident.