hankyoreh

Korea Communications Commission Chairman Choi See-joong, a close aide and personal mentor to the president, says he has ordered a legal review of Google. This order follows the company’s decision to voluntarily disable the upload and comment functions of its YouTube Korea site, something he called sang’eop-jeok nun garigo aung, translating to something approximate to a “transparent commercial move.” An official with the KCC confirmed that the legal review would investigate whether or not “Google has engaged in illegal activities in any of the various services it operates in South Korea.”

The government is currently unable to enact sanctions directly against Google for its decision to disable users from uploading video content or comments, one that it appears to have contemplated on for some time, in effect removing it from being subject to the “internet real name program” (internet silmyeongje). The only recourse the government has now is to get Google to comply by finding something wrong with its other services?　

The whole Internet world is watching this unfolding story, and this coercion is only going to make South Korea look bad. Instead of threatening Google, its first order of business should be to ask itself why since the start of the Lee Myung-bak’s administration has South Korea gone from being seen as a country with an advanced communications network to a country that suppresses freedom of the expression. This is crude behavior on the part of the KCC.　

The Lee administration first began searching for ways to suppress criticism on the internet after last year’s “candlelight vigil demonstrations,” during which the internet and South Korean portal sites, in particular “Agora” discussion pages at the Daum portal, played a significant role in facilitating the formation of opinion critical of the government. Minister of Justice Kim Kyung-hwan announced in July of that year that he wanted to add　a new crime on the law books, the act of “cyber insult,” and, used the suicide of actress Choi Jin-sil as an opportunity for his ministry to influence discourse surrounding the legislation of internet liability crimes and to　enact stronger requirements about confirming one’s legal identity on the internet The proposal to revise the Information and Communications Networks Act (jeongbo tongsinmang beop), itself the subject of controversy at the moment, is an extension of that effort.

The biggest advantage about the Internet is that it allows for freedom of expression. Anonymity can sometimes be used to facilitate that freedom of expression. Negative things sometimes do emerge, of course, as some can use anonymity to spread falsities and make malicious commentary. Trying to suppress negative side effects by responding with this type of regulation is like killing the ox to fix the ox’s horn.

The administration needs to listen to the criticism that suppressing freedom of expression on the Internet does more than just delimit our freedoms. It has a negative influence the entire communications industry. On Wednesday, the National Assembly Research Service issued a report in which it mentions the possibility that South Korea’s internet portal companies could suffer if the current bills to revise internet regulations are made into law as it may prompt　large numbers of “cyber defections” in which Korean internet users flock to overseas portals.

Currently efforts are underway to 　revise the Protection of Communications Secrets Act with the Communication Date Retention Amendment, and the Act on the Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and User Protection to extend the application of the regulating, including a wider application of the confirmation requirements of “real” user identities.

It is time to completely reconsider this approach of implementing these Internet regulations as the answer to our problems. These amendments are not only going to be ineffective, but also the standing regulations also hurt the Internet industry and are giving South Korea an international reputation for being a country that suppresses the freedom of expression.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]