Republican members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee sent a letter of protest to Chairperson Kim Jong-chul of the Korea Media and Communications Commission (KMCC) over an amendment to the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection that took effect on the 7th of last month.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio on Aug. 6 (local time) released the letter on his X account. The letter was also signed by Republican Judiciary Committee members Scott Fitzgerald of Wisconsin, Darrell Issa of California, and Michael Baumgartner of Washington.
They labeled the amendment a "serious threat to online and free expression," saying, "There is concern it would allow the Korea Media and Communications Commission (KMCC) to punish U.S. corporations and their users solely for exercising rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and it could be abused to censor Americans' online speech."
They also said the law's definition of "false information" is unclear and that it does not specifically set out the standards and procedures for enforcement, noting, "It could be abused as a tool to censor opinions that are not politically preferred, and could have a chilling effect on free expression and online speech."
The Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection passed the National Assembly's plenary session on Dec. 24 last year and has been in effect since the 7th of last month. It imposes obligations on platform operators such as Naver, Kakao, Google, Meta, and X to delete or block false or manipulated information and provides penalties for violations.
Republican lawmakers argued that the amended Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection appears to effectively target U.S. platform corporations. The letter explained that the law applies to content publishers with at least 100,000 subscribers or an average of at least 100,000 monthly views, and to large platforms with at least 1 million daily average users, then pointed out that most services meeting these thresholds—such as Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube—are U.S. corporations.
They also claimed the amendment modeled the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA). The lawmakers said, "The Judiciary Committee has pointed out instances where the EU used the Digital Services Act to control global operating practices of online platforms and infringe on U.S. citizens' freedom of expression," adding, "Korea appears to be following in the EU's footsteps by adopting a law directly modeled on the Digital Services Act."
Fitzgerald, in a separate statement, said, "No foreign government should have the authority to pressure U.S. corporations to censor expression protected by the Constitution," adding, "Korea's so-called 'false information' bill is vague, broad, and ripe for abuse. Congress will continue to scrutinize attempts by foreign governments to export censorship and undermine the freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment."