Samsung Electronics will switch its in-house flagship community, "NOW Talk," which has been run anonymously, to a real-name system.
According to the industry on the 17th, Samsung Electronics notified employees that starting at 12 a.m. on the 18th, the names of authors will be displayed on all posts and comments in NOW Talk. NOW Talk is an internal communication channel that shares company news and key policies and allows employees to exchange views.
The overhaul is aimed at responding to the revised Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, which took effect on the 7th of last month. The amended law clarifies the scope of illegal information and establishes regulations and relief procedures for the distribution of false or manipulated information. If someone intentionally distributes such information and harms others, the law allows claims for enhanced damages.
However, the amended law does not uniformly mandate the introduction of a real-name system on online boards. The law focuses on requiring information and communications service providers above a certain size to establish operating policies, including reporting and handling standards. Accordingly, the NOW Talk real-name policy is seen as an operational measure Samsung Electronics decided on its own to reduce risks following the law's implementation.
Samsung Electronics said there had been continued cases of employees abusing anonymity to slander colleagues or spread unverified content. It was also reported that verbal abuse and slander had increasingly infringed on members' rights, and that the company recently received guidance for improvement on workplace harassment from the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL).
Real names will not be applied retroactively to posts and comments registered before the system change. Employees can continue to browse and write posts from the "NOW" menu at the top of the main screen as before.
Samsung Electronics plans to continue checking for illegal or false information distribution and violations of operating principles even after the real-name policy takes effect.