Yang Jeongsuk "Online Rights Infringement Reports Surge... Naver Remains No.1 in Refusals"

[Asia Economy Reporter Joselgina] As the number of online rights infringement cases centered on platforms is rapidly increasing, there are urgent calls for measures to address this issue. Naver, the leading domestic portal platform, ranked first in the number of reports.

According to data submitted by the Korea Communications Standards Commission to Yang Jeong-suk, an independent member of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee, as of the end of August 2021, the total number of online rights infringement reports from 2017 reached 5,012 cases.

By year, the numbers were ▲498 cases in 2017 ▲1,174 cases in 2018 ▲1,584 cases in 2019 ▲1,673 cases in 2020, showing an increasing trend every year. This means the number more than tripled in three years. In the case of this year, only 33 cases were recorded due to the Korea Communications Standards Commission's organizational issues, which hindered proper review.

During the same period, by platform, ▲Naver had the highest number of reports with 2,086 cases, followed by ▲YouTube with 443 cases, ▲Daum with 235 cases, ▲Twitter with 139 cases, ▲Google with 127 cases, ▲Facebook with 95 cases, and ▲Instagram with 73 cases.

However, corrective actions for rights infringement amounted to only 860 cases, accounting for just 17% of the total reports. By platform, among the total 860 cases, ▲Naver had the most with 157 cases, followed by ▲YouTube with 130 cases, ▲Facebook with 33 cases, ▲Daum with 25 cases, ▲Twitter with 24 cases, ▲Google with 13 cases, and ▲Instagram with 9 cases.

Among these, Naver showed a continuous increase with ▲18 cases in 2017, ▲23 cases in 2018, ▲49 cases in 2019, and ▲66 cases in 2020, maintaining its undisputed first place. YouTube showed the highest increase last year, rising more than sevenfold to 70 cases.

Assembly member Yang Jeong-suk pointed out, “As the number of online platform users increases, reports of online rights infringement are also rising annually, but corrective actions account for only 17%. It raises doubts about whether the Korea Communications Standards Commission's review is functioning properly.”

Yang emphasized, “Rights infringement reviews are conducted based on the parties' correction requests, but since online rights infringement is rapidly increasing on major platform companies like Naver and YouTube, proactive preventive measures at the Korea Communications Standards Commission level are necessary. Given the delayed launch of the commission, swift review processes and measures to protect users' rights are urgently needed.”