Concerns are mounting that the "revised Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection," which requires those who spread false or manipulated information to pay up to five times the damages, will be abused as a tool of censorship. More than 140,000 people have joined a National Assembly petition calling to "withdraw the enforcement of the law."
According to the public consent petition website on the 1st, a total of 142,248 people agreed to a petition calling for the withdrawal of the revised Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, saying it "could be abused as a tool of state censorship to broadly review and sanction internet posts that those in power do not like."
The revised Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection passed a plenary session of the National Assembly in December last year, led by the Democratic Party of Korea. It was promulgated in Jan. this year and will take effect on Jul. 7.
Under the law, when a "false or manipulated information report" is filed on a platform with an average of at least 1 million daily users, the platform is required to take measures such as deletion in accordance with its self-regulatory policy and publicly disclose the results in a report. The rule applies not only to platforms like Naver and YouTube, but also to messengers such as KakaoTalk and Telegram if the format is an open chat in which an unspecified large number participates, rather than a one-on-one conversation.
YouTubers or influencers active on platforms may face punitive damages. Among posters who distribute false or manipulated information and earn revenue, those with at least 100,000 subscribers or whose monthly average views for posts in the past three months exceed 100,000 are liable for aggravated damages (up to five times). In addition, if information confirmed by a court ruling to be false or manipulated is distributed more than twice, the Korea Media and Communications Commission (KMCC) will impose a penalty surcharge of up to 1 billion won, separate from civil sanctions.
The biggest point of contention over the revised Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection is concern that the vague concept of false or manipulated information could lead to arbitrary judgments and censorship. The law bans the distribution of information in which all or part of the content is false (false information) or is altered to mislead people into believing it is factual (manipulated information), but the criteria are subjective, making it hard for businesses to judge individual cases. As a result, platforms facing the risk of punishment may engage in excessive censorship, and there is strong criticism that this process could chill public-interest whistleblowing.
The Korea Media and Communications Commission (KMCC) approved a revised enforcement decree for the law at its 20th general meeting on the 29th of last month, and KMCC Commissioner Choi Su-young said, "If there are no clear standards, it can cause confusion," adding, "Businesses (such as platforms) are highly likely to engage in over-enforcement by conservatively deleting posts to avoid legal risk, and users may maliciously report legitimate posts."
Previously, platform operators took temporary measures (suspending posts) upon a party's request for posts that infringed on others' rights, such as defamation, but the new law not only greatly expands the scope of reportable information, it also greatly expands who can report to "anyone" beyond the parties involved. If a large volume of reports occurs, platforms are expected to face difficulties in assessing and responding.
The ruling camp calls the law the "false and manipulated information eradication law," while the opposition criticizes it as the "online mouth-shutting law." People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik said it is a "bad law that will lead to suppression of freedom of expression across the media, YouTube, and the internet based on the authorities' arbitrary judgments," and independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon said, "If the government decides what is true, a 'censorship ecosystem' will be established in which large online platforms themselves filter out information that does not suit the government's taste."