24,000 Overseas Illegal Information Cases Deleted Including '5·18 North Korea Intervention YouTube'

Google, YouTube, Twitter, etc. Requests
Among Self-Regulation Requests from January to October,
85% Information Deleted or Blocked
Platforms' Lukewarm Attitude Due to Circumvention Tricks
Increasing Requests for International Cooperation Despite Difficulties

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Of the 130 videos distorting the history of the May 18 Democratic Movement detected on YouTube last year, 115 have been removed. The problematic videos included claims that North Korean special forces infiltrated Gwangju during the May 18 Democratic Movement or that the late President Kim Dae-jung incited riots. These videos had undergone review by the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) and their removal is a result of international cooperation.

With the social influence of global non-face-to-face platforms increasing due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the KCSC strengthened international cooperation. It expanded requests for self-regulation focusing on the five major platforms with the greatest domestic and international influence (Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter).

The KCSC’s international cooperation inspection team announced on the 24th that it requested self-regulation on 33,411 cases of illegal and harmful information on the five major platforms last year. Of the 28,443 requests made from January to October, 24,176 cases (85%) were confirmed to have been deleted or blocked. This number may increase by the end of December.

By category, these include ▲digital sex crimes ▲illegal finance ▲obscenity and prostitution ▲drug trafficking ▲illegal food and pharmaceuticals ▲organ trafficking ▲forgery of documents, among others. Excluding others, requests related to illegal food and pharmaceuticals were the most numerous, with 5,886 out of 6,838 cases deleted.

Previously, in the case of overseas illegal information, there were technical limitations in enforcing corrective measures (such as access blocking) due to various circumvention tactics. The indifferent attitude of overseas platform operators toward voluntary measures also made post-monitoring difficult. However, with the global spread of COVID-19 making remote work common, the KCSC judged that the social harm caused by overseas illegal information had reached an unacceptable level. It was considered that if operators did not take timely action, it would become difficult to respond afterward to personal damage and social confusion.

Accordingly, the KCSC established a cooperation system with operators centered on the five major global platforms with significant domestic and international influence, providing opportunities for operators to promptly and effectively take actions such as deletion and blocking. Furthermore, it promoted cooperative efforts to actively ensure that the platforms accept the commission’s review decisions requesting self-regulation.

In addition, for digital sex crime information that can cause pain and harm to victims, a 24-hour reporting reception and a permanent review system have been established and operated. Immediately upon review decisions, the list of information is delivered to operators, resulting in 94% of requested content being deleted.

A KCSC official stated, "We will continue to expand cooperation with overseas platforms and explore cooperation measures with related domestic and international organizations to effectively prevent the distribution of illegal and harmful information overseas and provide relief to victims. We will continue efforts to protect domestic internet users and fulfill our role and responsibility to safeguard public safety."