Internet censorship in South Korea
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Internet censorship in South Korea is prevalent, and contains some unique elements such as the blocking of pro-
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
websites, and to a lesser extent, Japanese websites, which led to it being categorized as "pervasive" in the conflict/security area by
OpenNet Initiative The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) was a joint project whose goal was to monitor and report on internet filtering and surveillance practices by nations. The project employed a number of technical means, as well as an international network of investigato ...
. South Korea is also one of the few developed countries where pornography is largely
illegal Illegal, or unlawful, typically describes something that is explicitly prohibited by law, or is otherwise forbidden by a state or other governing body. Illegal may also refer to: Law * Violation of law * Crime, the practice of breaking the ...
, with the exception of social media websites which are a common source of legal pornography in the country. Any and all material deemed "harmful" or subversive by the state is censored. The country also has a " cyber defamation law", which allow the police to crack down on comments deemed "hateful" without any reports from victims, with citizens being sentenced for such offenses. From 1995 to 2002, the government of South Korea passed the Telecommunications Business Act (TBA), the first internet censorship law in the world. Passing of the act lead to the establishment of the Internet Communications Ethics Committee (ICEC), which would monitor the Internet and make recommendations for content to be removed. The ICEC pursued criminal prosecutions of those who made unlawful statements and blocked several foreign websites. In the first eight months of 1996, the ICEC took down roughly 220,000 messages on Internet sites. From 2002 to 2008, the government passed a revision of the TBA legislation. This allowed the ICEC to engage in more sophisticated internet policing and other bureaucratic entities to monitor the Internet for illegal speech or take down websites that violated the laws. During this time, there was political drive to increase extensive internet censorship, in part as a response to cases of suicide associated with online rumors. In 2007, over 200,000 incidents of
cyberbullying Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers, as the digital ...
were reported. In 2008, the election of President Lee Myung-bak was followed by the inauguration of major increases in broadcast censorship. The South Korean government passed a law that created a new agency called the
Korea Communications Standards Commission The Korea Communications Standards Commission () is an institution of the South Korean government that regulates communications including film, television, radio, and internet. At its formation in 2008, the KCSC replaced an earlier body, the In ...
(KCSC) to replace the ICEC, becoming the new South Korean Internet regulation and censorship body. The first major change by the
Lee Myung-bak government The Lee Myung-bak government (, RR: ''I Myeong-bak Jeongbu'') was the fifth government of the Sixth Republic of South Korea. It took office on 25 February 2008 after Lee Myung-bak's victory in the 2007 presidential elections. Most of the new cabi ...
was to require websites with over 100,000 daily visitors to make their users register their real name and social security numbers. A second change made by the government was to allow KCSC to suspend or delete any web posting or articles for 30 days as soon as a complaint is filed. The reason for the new law was to combat cyberbullying in South Korea. Every week, portions of the South Korean web are taken down by the KCSC. In 2013, around 23,000 South Korean webpages were deleted and another 63,000 blocked by the KCSC. South Korea's government maintains a broad-ranging approach toward the regulation of specific online content and imposes a substantial level of censorship on election-related discourse and on many websites that the government deems subversive or socially harmful. Such policies are particularly pronounced with regard to anonymity on the Internet. The
OpenNet Initiative The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) was a joint project whose goal was to monitor and report on internet filtering and surveillance practices by nations. The project employed a number of technical means, as well as an international network of investigato ...
classifies
Internet censorship Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains (such as Wikipedia.org) but exceptionally may extend to all Int ...
in South Korea as pervasive in the conflict/security area, as selective in the social area, with fewer evidence of filtering in the political and Internet tools areas. In 2011 South Korea was included on Reporters Without Borders list of countries ''Under Surveillance''. This designation persisted in 2012, shared with
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and
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among other countries. Freedom House has also reported that online harassment, particularly newer, digitally mediated forms of violence against women has continued. In 2019, the South Korean government announced that it would use SNI snooping to censor HTTPS websites. This was met with strong opposition, with more than 230,000 South Korean citizens signing a petition to protest the measure, but the opposition was disregarded by the government. The South Korean government defended its decision by stating that the
Korea Communications Standards Commission The Korea Communications Standards Commission () is an institution of the South Korean government that regulates communications including film, television, radio, and internet. At its formation in 2008, the KCSC replaced an earlier body, the In ...
was an independent commission, a claim which turned out to be false, as most members of the commission were appointed by the president of the country.


Relevant laws

During the military dictatorships of Park Chung-hee and
Chun Doo-hwan Chun Doo-hwan (; or ; 18 January 1931 – 23 November 2021) was a South Korean army general and military dictator who ruled as an unelected strongman from 1979 to 1980 before replacing Choi Kyu-hah as president of South Korea from 1980 to 198 ...
(1961-1987), anti-government speech was frequently suppressed with reference to the National Security Act (NSA, 1948) and the Basic Press Law (1980). Although the Basic Press Law was abolished in 1987, the NSA remains in effect. The government has used other "dictatorship-era" laws in order to prosecute critics in contemporary contexts; for example a law against the spreading of "false rumors" was used to charge a teenage protester during the 2008 US beef protest in South Korea. According to the Telecommunication Business Law, three government agencies in South Korea have responsibility for Internet surveillance and censorship: the
Broadcasting Regulation Committee Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began wi ...
, the
Korea Media Rating Board The Korea Media Rating Board (; KMRB) is a public organization that classifies films, videos, and other motion pictures into age-based ratings and recommends domestic performances of foreign artists. Through these rating systems, the Korea Media ...
, and the Korea Internet Safety Commission (KISCOM, 2005). KISCOM censors the Internet through orders to
internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...
s to block access to "subversive communication", "materials harmful to minors", "cyber defamation", "sexual violence", "cyber stalking", and "pornography and nudity". Regulators have blocked or removed 15,000 Internet posts in 2008, and over 53,000 in 2011. In April 2020, the
national assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
passed a bill to handle the culprits of digital sex crimes. According to the bill, those who purchase, sell or watch media graphics of non-consensual sexual activity will be jailed for up to 3 years or fined up to 3 million Won (US$2,600).


Political censorship

Freedom to criticize government leaders, policies, and the military is limited to the extent that it "endangers national security" or is considered by censors to be "cyber defamation". The government has cited "character assassinations and suicides caused by excessive insults, ndthe spreading of false rumors and defamation" to justify its censorship. In May 2002, KISCOM shut down the anti- conscription website ''non-serviam'' on the grounds that it "denied the legitimacy" of the South Korean military. The Navy of South Korea accused an activist of
criminal libel Criminal libel is a legal term, of English origin, which may be used with one of two distinct meanings, in those common law jurisdictions where it is still used. It is an alternative name for the common law offence which is also known (in order ...
when he criticized plans to build a controversial naval base in the country. The government has deleted the
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
account of a user who cursed the president, and a judge who wrote critically about the President's Internet censorship policies was fired. In 2010, the Prime Minister's Office authorized surveillance on a civilian who satirized President Lee Myung-bak. In 2007, numerous bloggers were censored and their posts deleted by police for expressing criticism of, or even support for, presidential candidates. This even led to some bloggers being arrested by the police. Subsequently, in 2008, just before a new presidential election, new legislation that required all major Internet portal sites to require identity verification of their users was put into effect. This applies to all users who add any publicly viewable content. For example, to post a comment on a news article, a user registration and citizen identity number verification is required. For foreigners who do not have such numbers, a copy of passport must be faxed and verified. Although this law was initially met with public outcry, as of 2008, most of the major portals, including Daum, Naver, Nate, and
Yahoo Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...
Korea, enforce such verification before the user can post any material that is publicly viewable.
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
refused to conform to the law, instead opting to disable the commenting feature on its Korean site.


Discussion about North Korea

South Korea has banned at least 65 sites considered sympathetic to
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
through the use of IP blocking. Most North Korean websites are hosted overseas in the United States, Japan and China. Critics say that the only practical way of blocking a webpage is by denying its
IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
, and since many of the North Korean sites are hosted on large servers together with hundreds of other sites, the number of real blocked pages increases significantly. Estimates are that over 3,000 additional webpages are rendered inaccessible. In September 2004,
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
launched the website of , ''Our Nation School''. Three days later, Internet providers in South Korea were ordered by the
National Police Agency National Police may refer to the national police forces of several countries: *Afghanistan: Afghan National Police *Haiti: Haitian National Police *Colombia: National Police of Colombia *Cuba: Cuban National Police *East Timor: National Police of ...
, National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) to block connections to the site, as well as more than 30 others, including Minjok Tongshin,
Choson Sinbo The ''Choson Sinbo'' (''Chosun Shinbo''), also known by the name of its English edition ''The People's Korea'', is a newspaper based in Japan, published in both Korean and Japanese. The name literally means ' Chosun (Korea) Newspaper'. It is p ...
, Chosun Music, North Korea Info Bank, DPRK Stamp and
Uriminzokkiri ''Uriminzokkiri'' () is a North Korean state-controlled news website, much of whose content is syndicated from other news groups within the country, such as KCNA. Aside from on their own website, Uriminzokkiri also distributes information over ...
. In September 2007, Democratic Labor Party activist Kim Kang-pil was sentenced to one year in prison for discussing North Korea on the party's website. In 2008, five South Koreans were arrested for distributing pro-North material online. In August 2010, the South Korean government blocked a
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
account operated by the North. In January 2011, a South Korean man was arrested for praising North Korea through
social networking sites A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...
. That same year another South Korean was arrested for posting 300 messages and 6 videos of pro-North content and sentenced to 10 months in jail. A further 83 South Koreans were arrested for distributing pro-North material on the Internet. In January 2012, a South Korean freedom-of-speech activist was arrested for
reblogging Reblogging (or, in Twitter parlance, retweeting) is the mechanism in blogging which allows users to repost the content of another user's post with an indication that the source of the post is another user. It was first developed by Jonah Peretti ...
a post from a North Korean Twitter account. South Korean president Lee Myung-bak's 2011 policies included cracking down on pro-North Korean comments on social network sites like
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and
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
. Reporters Without Borders noted that the government " adintensified" its campaign to censor pro-North Korea material in 2012 as well. In 2018, a South Korean man was arrested for demanding abolishment of the National Security Law and praising North Korea. He was sentenced to one year in prison.


Nudity and obscenity

The
Government of South Korea The Government of South Korea is the union government of the Republic of Korea, created by the Constitution of South Korea as the executive, legislative and judicial authority of the republic. The president acts as the head of state and is th ...
practiced censorship of gay-content websites from 2001 to 2003, through its ''Information and Communications Ethics Committee'' (정보통신윤리위원회), an official organ of the Ministry of Information and Communication, under its category of "obscenity and perversion"; for example, it shut down the website ''ex-zone'', a website about gay and lesbian issues, in 2001. That practice has since been reversed. Since 2008, attempts by anybody to access "indecent Internet sites" featuring unrated games, pornography, gambling, etc., are automatically redirected to a warning page which states "This site is legally blocked by the government regulations." Search engines are required to verify age for some keywords deemed inappropriate for minors. For such keywords, age verification using a national identity number is required. For foreigners, a copy of their passport must be faxed for age verification. As of 2008, practically all large search engine companies in South Korea, including foreign-owned companies (e.g. Yahoo! Korea), have complied with this legislation. In April 2009 when the Communication Commission ordered user verification be put on the system at
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
, Google Korea blocked video uploading from users whose country setting is Korean. In September 2012, Google re-enabled YouTube uploads in Korea following a three-year block. On December 21, 2010, the
Korea Communications Commission Korea Communications Commission () is a South Korean media regulation agency modeled after the Federal Communications Commission of the United States of America. It was established on February 29, 2008, combining the former ''Korean Broadcasting ...
announced that it planned to create guidelines about monitoring Internet content in case of a tense political situation, such as automatically deleting any online anti-government message.


Criticism

The 2009 modification of the
copyright law of South Korea Copyright law of South Korea is regulated by the Copyright Act of 1957. It has been amended several times, with a recent 2009 revision introducing a three strikes policy for online copyright infringement. History The concept of copyright first app ...
introducing the three strikes policy has generated criticism, including regarding Internet freedoms and censorship. Tens of thousands of Korean Internet users have been disconnected from the Internet after not three, but one strike. On September 6, 2011, the Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized the
Korea Communications Standards Commission The Korea Communications Standards Commission () is an institution of the South Korean government that regulates communications including film, television, radio, and internet. At its formation in 2008, the KCSC replaced an earlier body, the In ...
for proposing censorship and restriction on the blog of an Internet free speech activist, Dr. Gyeong-sin Park. The
United Nations Human Rights Council The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), CDH is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. ...
's Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression warned South Korea's government about its censorship, noting among other things that South Korea's defamation laws are often used to punish statements "that are true and are in the public interest". Korean officials' rhetoric about censored material, including that it is "subversive", "illegal", "harmful" or related to "pornography and nudity", has been noted as similar to that of their Chinese counterparts. Critics also say that the government takes prohibitions on profanity as "a convenient excuse to silence critics" and chill speech. South Korean conservative media outlets loyal to the Lee Myung-bak government are accused of advocating further Internet censorship, because the Internet is the main source of information for progressive South Korean youths.


See also

* Censorship of Japanese media in South Korea *
Copyright law of South Korea Copyright law of South Korea is regulated by the Copyright Act of 1957. It has been amended several times, with a recent 2009 revision introducing a three strikes policy for online copyright infringement. History The concept of copyright first app ...
* * Smart Sheriff, a South Korean parental monitoring mobile application. *
Web compatibility issues in South Korea Many South Korean websites have web compatibility issues, due to the non-standard technology that they use. Often this technology works only with Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), some smartphones ( iPhone, Android, etc.), and tablets. Follow ...


References


External links


Warning - Prevention of illegal and harmful information

South Korea country report
OpenNet Initiative, 6 August 2012 {{Asia in topic, Internet censorship in
Korea, South South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
Korea, South South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
Censorship in South Korea Human rights abuses in South Korea Internet in South Korea