How to join, from outside Korea, the joint legal letter a Korean lawyer sends to Meta (step by step)
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This guide is for people outside Korea who want to join the group demand letter that a Korean law firm sends to Meta about disabled Instagram accounts. The notice and the form are in Korean, so below you can see what they look like in English and what to enter in each field.
What it is
• Attorney Kim Jun-sung of Law Firm KAI, a lawyer licensed in Korea, sends the letters on the 1st, 11th and 21st of each month. His profile: https://kailaw.kr/kim-junseong-lawyer/
• Each account is listed in two letters: one in Korean to Meta's designated representative in Korea, and one in English (a Formal Letter of Demand) to Meta Platforms, Inc. in the United States.
• The fee is KRW 220,000 per account (VAT included) and covers both letters.
• You can add an explanation in English (up to 1,500 characters). It goes into the English letter exactly as you write it.
• Whether an account is restored is decided by Meta.
Step 1. Read the notice
The notice is on the lawyer's Naver Cafe: https://cafe.naver.com/instarlaw/2 (you can read it without a Naver account). It looks like this:
To read it in English, use your browser's translate feature: in Chrome, right-click the page and choose "Translate to English"; in Safari, tap aA and then Translate. On a phone, the Google app or Papago also work. The same notice then reads like this:
Further down are the price table, the payment and refund rules, and the FAQ:
Machine translation is not perfect. For example, it calls the letter a "certification of contents". Where it matters, the Korean original is what counts.
Step 2. Fill in the application form, one form per account
Form: https://forms.gle/P4joj6Wo8GUe8jUf9 (no Google login needed). Here it is translated to English, with the questions numbered:
1. Email: your email address. Notices and the mailing tracking numbers are sent here.
2. Your full name: your real name. English letters are fine.
3. Your mobile number: with your country code, e.g. +1 415 555 0100.
4. Instagram ID: the username of the disabled account. One account per form. For several accounts, submit one form for each; the fee is per account.
5. Email address linked to the account.
6. Phone number linked to the account: with your country code. If there is none, type None.
7. When the account was created: an approximate date is fine (optional).
8. Followers when the account was disabled: an approximate number is fine (optional).
9. The reason Instagram gave: copy the wording from Instagram's notice, e.g. "Account integrity" or "Intellectual property".
10. The date the account was first suspended (required).
11. The date you first asked for a review (appealed). The translation says "restock request", which is wrong (optional).
12. The date you were told the account was permanently disabled (optional).
13. Your explanation to Meta: in English only, up to 1,500 characters including spaces. It is copied into the English letter as you write it, and it is left out if it contains any Korean. Write the facts Meta should know, such as what the account is used for and why the stated reason does not apply. In the letter's appendix it appears under your account, as in this example from the notice:
14. Consent to the use of your personal data: choose "Yes, I agree". The form says the data is used to send the letters and kept for up to 2 years.
15. Payment notice: select the only option. It confirms that you have seen the payment details; from outside Korea, pay as in Step 3.
16. Sender's name: the name of the bank account holder who will send the money, as your bank will show it. This is how your payment is matched to your form.
17. Korean cash receipt: this is for Korean tax receipts only. Type None.
Then click Submit. If you tick the box above the button, you get a copy of your answers by email.
Step 3. Pay by international bank transfer (SWIFT)
Use your bank's international transfer (wire):
• Bank: Shinhan Bank
• SWIFT / BIC: SHBKKRSE
• Account number: 100037740540
• Account name: LAWFIRM KAI (no space between LAW and FIRM)
• Bank address: 120, 2-GA TAEPYUNG-RO, JUNG-GU, SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
• Recipient address: 4F, 19 Nonhyeon-ro 87-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
• Amount: KRW 220,000 if your bank can send Korean won; otherwise USD 165, or the same value in your own currency
• Charges: any option (OUR, SHA or BEN). You don't need to add the fees that other banks take along the way.
• Reference / message: IG and your Instagram ID, e.g. IG john.doe
• Purpose, if asked: payment for legal services
If your bank asks for a routing, ABA or IBAN number: Korean banks don't use them. The SWIFT code and the account number are enough.
Step 4. Timing and what happens next
• The deadline is 3 days before each mailing date (the 1st, 11th and 21st, or the next business day after a Korean public holiday). An account goes into a mailing only if its payment has arrived by then.
• International transfers usually take 1 to 3 business days, so send yours a few days early.
• The next mailing date and its deadline are posted in the comments under the notice.
• After the letters are mailed, the registered-mail tracking numbers (Korea and international) are emailed to the address you gave in question 1.
• Work starts as soon as the form is submitted, so refunds are difficult after that.
If something is unclear, ask in the comments below.