Posco recently came under fire for using a pinching hand gesture in the company’s animated employee recruitment video, as the online hunt for the hand gesture continues.

The video, titled “Please enter right away! We’ll show you what’s up. 2023 Posco second-half new employee recruitment,” was uploaded on Posco’s YouTube Channel three months ago.

The video is not available for viewing as of now. Posco took down the video without publishing a statement.

The controversy started after a post online titled “Posco feminist controversy” emerged with three screenshots of the video on the Korean online community Bobaedream on Tuesday.

“Isn’t this a smoking gun,” the poster said, implying the gesture was planted by a feminist as a symbol of misandry.

In one frame, characters enter the shot while disco dancing with the pinching hand gesture. One frame showed a man rubbing under his nose with his index finger. Another showed a man staring in awe with his hands shrinking back.

The hand gesture in question is a pinching motion using an index finger and thumb, which had been used as a symbol in the now-defunct Megalia, one of Korea’s largest radical feminist online communities, to ridicule the size of Korean men’s genitals.

Recently, a promotional video for Nexon’s MapleStory was also taken down after online community users accused the production studio and animation staff behind the video of deliberately planting the controversial hand gesture in the video.

The animator behind the video was revealed to have uploaded posts identifying as a feminist and supporting women’s rights on X, formerly Twitter.

Nexon and Studio Ppuri, the production, issued statements of apology and promised to take appropriate measures.

BY KIM JU-YEON, HAN JEE-HYE [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]