hankyoreh

the Democratic Labor Party

The government will impose punishment against administrators of Internet portals if they do not respond to defamation claims by deleting messages, raising questions about censorship. The move is expected to curb the freedom of expression and undermine the use of the Internet as a positive tool for communication because it could prompt Internet portals to voluntarily remove messages from their Web sites they deem objectionable in order to avoid possible punishment. In addition, the government plans to expand the “real names system” on the Internet and introduce a new crime, the “cyber insult,” which will allow police to punish Internet users who post messages with defamatory content.

On July 22, the Korea Communications Commission announced a flurry of measures titled, “Comprehensive Measures for Information Protection on the Internet,” which place heavy penalties on Internet portals for rule violations and expand coverage of the real names system. Under the proposed measures, the operators of Internet portals and peer-to-peer Web sites will be required to immediately remove a message from the site if a third person claims to have been defamed. The operators of the Internet portals and P2P Web sites will be punished if they do not accept the third person’s demand.

Coverage of the real names system will be expanded to include Internet portals with more than an average of 100,000 visitors daily. If the measure goes into effect, Internet users will be required to register with their real names in order to log on to small- and medium-sized Web sites, as well as to most of the large portal sites, to post a message or reply. Currently, the real names system is mandatory for Internet portals with more than an average of 300,000 visitors per day and Web sites owned by media companies with more than an average of 200,000 visitors daily.

The KCC plan also includes the revision of a law. The new law would minimize the number of companies allowed to collect people’s resident registration numbers and ban other telecommunications and Internet service providers from collecting, storing and distributing the resident registration numbers. In addition, if a customer’s personal information is leaked, companies will be required to let them know about the leak using any means possible. The KCC’s measures are slated to be implemented from the end of this year after the related laws are revised.

Lim Cha-shik, a senior KCC official in charge of Internet network policy, said the measures are “aimed at calming people’s fears about an increase in the disadvantages associated with Internet use, such as personal information leaks and the spread of harmful information.”

However, the proposed measures are likely to stir up controversy because many people feel they were impromptu and a stopgap solution and there are concerns that they could undermine Internet use and impinge upon freedom of expression.

The measures are problematic in that they appear to be contradictory. The KCC said that to protect personal information, it would expand the coverage of the real names system, but is planning to decrease the number of companies allowed to collect, store and distribute people’s resident registration numbers. It is also notable that the KCC itself has admitted the difficulty of removing the resident registration numbers collected by Internet portals.

The KCC also said it will institute the “right to access computer systems,” which will enable the government to access personal and corporate computer systems whenever there is an incident of “Internet intrusion.”

This could cause negative side-effects in that the authorities could gain access to personal or corporate computer systems by citing a need to check the computer systems to steal information or could set up a backdoor channel for accessing the information at any time.

Jang Yeo-gyeong, the policy chief of the Jinbo Network Center, said, “President Lee Myung-bak’s extreme distrust of information posted on the Internet is likely to become a policy of shackling the Internet and its users.” Jang said. If the KCC’s measures go into effect, “there will be a situation in which the government is forcing the administrators of Internet portals to delete online messages, or make them invisible, and punish Internet users,” Jang said.

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