Naver has prepared measures to improve its comment service, including the introduction of a "malicious comment index," to prevent manipulation of portal news comments and distortion of public opinion. It plans to restrict how comments are displayed mainly in the politics section and to implement a system that automatically closes the comment window when malicious activity is detected.
According to the "Naver News comment service improvement plan" submitted by Naver to Yang Moon-seok, a lawmaker with the Democratic Party of Korea on the National Assembly Culture. Sports. and Tourism Committee, on the 13th, Naver is reviewing a plan to keep the comment area disabled by default only for articles in the politics category. Users would have to select "view all comments" or "go to the news outlet's comments" to see comments, with the aim of blocking organized comment offensives and the so-called "dropping coordinates" practice.
Naver has already introduced a feature that automatically disables the comment list when the number of likes and dislikes exceeds a certain threshold, and since last month has applied a policy that limits comment sorting to latest only. In addition, it is considering creating a "malicious comment index" system so that if the index for a specific article or comment window exceeds a certain level, the comment window is automatically closed or its exposure range is restricted.
This system is modeled after Yahoo Japan's artificial intelligence (AI)-based malicious comment scoring system, which has been in place since Oct. 2021. Yahoo Japan operates a method that automatically blocks the comment section of an article if the maliciousness score exceeds a set threshold. Naver also plans to build a similar algorithm and use it to manage comment quality.
Yang Moon-seok said, "We can no longer stand by as public opinion is swayed by certain groups 'dropping coordinates,'" adding, "As the nation's leading portal, Naver must demonstrate responsibility and determination befitting the formation of sound public opinion and the defense of democracy through action."