hankyoreh

The misguided nature of South Korea‘s Internet “real name system” is being openly revealed through the case concerning YouTube, the world’s largest video-sharing Web site. The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) excluded YouTube from its list of new Internet Web sites to which the real name system applies starting this month. The KCC faced strong protests from Google Korea, which found a way around the law by voluntarily shutting down some of the Web site‘s functions including Internet users’ ability to upload videos or post comments. When this led to a widely publicized policy, the disgraced KCC surrendered in the end. It has become clear that the real name system lacks both justification and effectiveness.

This is evident in the process through which the KCC applied and then lifted the real name system from YouTube. The KCC is saying that the real name system was lawfully applied to YouTube Korea last year because it had over 100 thousand users and a South Korean Web address. Conversely, it was excluded this year because it was viewed entirely as an international website with the disappearance of its Korean address. They are simply playing with words. The South Korean address used by YouTube Korea last year was nothing more than a simple link for the convenience of users: the Web site has changed nothing. Moreover, from the user‘s perspective, the only difference between YouTube Korea and local video sharing services is nothing more than a single click. This clearly reveals the unrealistic nature of regulating Internet services that stretch across borders.

If the effectiveness of applying the real name system to YouTube Korea has collapsed, the leak of resident registration numbers is eroding the basis for the system. It is becoming a commonly held view that as the leaking of resident registration numbers has reached a climax, it is now possible to buy the resident registration number of a South Korean citizen for a single Won in China. Since the resident registration numbers of virtually ever South Korean citizen has now been exposed, it is dangerous to confirm personal identification online only through resident registration numbers. The real name system, far from confirming identities, has become a tool for identity theft.

In the end, the real name system, adopted to decrease the impact of malicious comments, far from realizing its original intention is only repressing freedom of speech. Moreover, it has sparked only sparked new controversy over discrimination against local Internet services, which are competing with international sites. The only real solution is to abandon the real name system, which is only required in South Korea. Another urgent matter is to ban the online use and storage of resident registration numbers, which have become a tool for identity theft. The government must bear in mind that the longer they put this off, the greater the losses incurred.

　　
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