After President Lee Jae-myung recently said ridicule and hate speech had been left unchecked and mentioned opening a public debate on shutting down Ilgan Best Storage (Ilbe), the controversy over regulating online communities has grown. Advocates say large online communities should bear responsibility in line with their user scale, while critics worry that regulation could end up chilling freedom of expression.
The controversy escalated after the "May 18 Tank Day" promotion fiasco at Starbucks Korea and news that individuals presumed to be Ilbe users engaged in mocking behavior at the 17th anniversary memorial for the late former President Roh Moo-hyun.
Following the president's remarks, the debate spread beyond Ilbe to large online communities in general. According to Waffleboard, a community site developer, by monthly active users (MAU) in May, Korea's No. 1 community site is DC Inside (258 million). It is followed by ▲ FM Korea (Fmkorea) with 104 million ▲ Ruliweb with 61 million ▲ Theqoo with 59 million ▲ Arca.live with 51 million.
◇ President Lee mentions "shutting down Ilbe," jolting domestic communities
On the 4th, according to online communities, Fmkorea's operators posted a notice on the night of the 28th titled "Our position on attacks against the community." As criticism mounted that online communities like Fmkorea are hotbeds of hate speech, with even calls for shutdowns, the operators directly pushed back.
Fmkorea's operators said, "Illegal posts must, of course, be sanctioned," but added, "It is not fair regulation to nitpick and pressure based on posts with almost no views or a few posts that do not represent the whole simply because one dislikes the community's leanings."
They particularly raised an equity issue with overseas social media (SNS). Platforms abroad such as X and Telegram, where enforcing domestic law is difficult, are actively used even by government officials, while domestic companies that follow Korean law are the ones facing reverse discrimination.
Fmkorea's operators said, "Freedom of expression must be guaranteed equally everywhere," and, "The same principle should apply to places where opinions that someone dislikes gather."
Unlike Fmkorea's operators, DC Inside has not issued a separate stance regarding the controversy. However, on the 5th it plans to add provisions to its terms of service to "restrict information inducing suicide and posts related to self-harm and suicide."
The provisions would ban posting, transmitting, or distributing related content, and allow deletion without notice or reporting to relevant agencies in case of violations. In the industry, some interpret this as a preemptive move to reduce potential issues amid the regulation debate.
◇ Push for tougher rules… expanding calls for platform accountability
Under current law, deleting individual posts or blocking access is possible, but the standards to shut down an entire specific site are not clear.
After the 2018 petition to "shut down Ilbe," there was an official government review, but it concluded that it is difficult to block a specific online community that is not an illegal site established for purposes such as pornography or gambling under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection. Supreme Court precedents also recognize blocking an entire site only when the very purpose of establishing the site is illegal.
Some say the situation could change if the anti-discrimination law the government is pursuing is introduced. While it depends greatly on the bill's details, not only authors of posts containing hate speech but also community operators who fail to delete them promptly could be included among those held responsible.
In "The path of great transformation made by the people," which outlines one year of policy achievements and tasks of the Lee Jae-myung administration, it said, "We aim to lay the groundwork for legislating to prevent hate speech and discrimination by actively monitoring the National Assembly's introduction of the Equality Act (anti-discrimination law) and promoting 'a study on implementation cases and impact of overseas anti-discrimination legal systems.'"
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea is reportedly reviewing the so-called "Ilbe ban law." The idea is to impose a certain level of responsibility on platforms that repeatedly produce and distribute hate and ridicule.
◇ Concerns about infringement of freedom of expression… scope of permissible speech is the issue
The issue is that measures to block hate speech could lead to broad regulation of how online communities are run. If operators, fearing legal liability, engage in excessive prior management, spaces for political and social opinions could shrink.
Ultimately, the key issues are how to define hate speech and how far platforms should be held responsible. Even if there is agreement on the need for regulation, if standards are vague, it will be hard to avoid controversy over infringing freedom of expression.
Attorney Hong Kyung-yeol of Yulseon Law Office said, "If even simple negative expressions are defined as hate, freedom of expression could be excessively restricted," adding, "Since the Criminal Act already includes defamation and insult, it is also possible to supplement related laws to address gaps."