Social networking services have emerged as a valuable campaign machine, arousing interest in politics among young people and rallying them to polling stations. But amid raging negative campaigning, Facebook and Twitter are now becoming another platform for political dogfights, rumor-mongering and slander.

On Tuesday, the Internet was abuzz with rumors that Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate Park Geun-hye had cheated during the presidential debate the night before by peeking at an iPad.

The rumor was started when a lawmaker in the opposition Democratic United Party, Jeong Chung-rae, uploaded on his Twitter a photograph of Park looking at a red bag that was placed on her lap shortly after Monday’s debate.

“A cheat utilizing a super sophisticated notebook?” Jeong wrote. “Such a person is a presidential candidate?”

The DUP argued that the bag was an iPad case with a transparent cover, and accused Park of peaking at the tablet during the debate in violation of debate rules, which allow candidates to only possess sheets of paper.

Saenuri Party officials strongly denied the accusations.

“The bag that candidate Park was carrying was not an iPad window bag but an ordinary bag,” Park Sun-kyu, the party spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday. “The photograph was that of Park opening her bag and (the DUP) has falsely argued that it was an iPad.”

As the controversy spread online, Jeong apologized on Tuesday and deleted his original tweet, stating that there was some controversy as to the truth of his accusation. But Jeong still pointed out that Park violated debate rules by carrying a bag into the studio, which was prohibited.

Regarding the controversy, the National Election Commission stated on Wednesday that during the “hectic situation at the second presidential debate, (we) could not check that the candidate was in possession of a bag, as well as the contents inside of it.”

The controversy was the latest in a series of political dogfights that have transpired on the Web. Last week, a manipulated photograph of Park’s campaign stop near the statue of King Sejong in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, circulated.

The altered photograph showed more crowds congregating in the vicinity of the statue, which were apparently copied and pasted, as well as moved position of cars and buses.

It was unclear who manipulated the photograph and for what purpose. The manipulated photograph was not used by any news organization. The photograph first surfaced when an Internet user uploaded the altered photograph on the portal service Daum with the caption that a crowd of 100,000 had gathered in Gwanghwamun to watch Park. Other users quickly noticed the manipulation, and uploaded the original photograph and the altered one side by side on other Internet portals, and it quickly caught on fire.

The Saenuri Party denied any connection to the manipulated photograph, and announced that it would take legal action against the manipulator. News1, which took the original photograph, has also asked the police to investigate the matter.

SNS was once again drawn into the row when the DUP claimed Tuesday that a member of the National Intelligence Service identified by surname Kim had left comments on the Internet critical of DUP’s candidate Moon Jae-in at a studio apartment in southern Seoul.

A group of DUP lawmakers and police officers attempted to search the apartment Tuesday evening, but Kim refused to open the door. The standoff lasted for several hours. When an official from the NEC asked Kim if she worked for the NIS, Kim replied that she did not. But the NIS later confirmed that she worked for the agency.

Police announced that they would apply for a search warrant Wednesday. In a press release, the NIS denied the DUP’s claim that Kim left political comments on the Internet, and that the “NIS has never engaged in political activities favoring any particular candidate.”

The NIS added that “drawing in an intelligence agency is part of the negative black and white propaganda” and that it would seek legal actions against the DUP. The Saenuri Party argued that the DUP, by making unsubstantiated claims, had infringed on the constitutional rights of a private citizen. “DUP members, lawmakers, and reporters all rushed in and completely stomped over the human rights of a South Korean citizen,” Kim Moo-sung, the head of the Saenuri Party’s General Election Measures Headquarters, told reporters.

The DUP responded on Wednesday afternoon that it had obtained evidence that the NIS systemically left comments attacking Moon on the Internet and that it would press charges against the intelligence agency with the police for violating campaign laws.

A DUP spokesman also argued that the NIS agent was operating from a studio apartment in southern Seoul in order to avoid its IP address being detected, and that the police mismanaged the early part of the investigation, allowing the NIS time to destroy evidence.

By Samuel Songhoon Lee (songhoon@heraldcorp.com)