[W Forum] Internet Regulation Legislation Swayed by Propaganda

Professor Kim Hyun-kyung, Graduate School of IT Policy, Seoul National University of Science and Technology

Recently, with the enforcement of the ‘N Room Prevention Act’ (amended Telecommunications Business Act and Information and Communications Network Act), the issues that sparked controversy during the legislation process have fully surfaced. First, there is the issue of censorship. Following the implementation of the N Room Prevention Act, domestic operators such as Naver and Kakao have introduced filtering systems that examine videos and images posted in open online spaces like open chat rooms, social networking services (SNS), and communities to determine whether they are illegal recordings, based on government-established algorithms and constructed databases (DBs). In effect, even online spaces with no illegal content at all are being censored to check what kinds of expressions citizens share.

Second, there is the issue of effectiveness. Overseas messengers such as Telegram and Discord, which were the original causes for the creation of this law, have been excluded from regulation. This problem was already raised during the legislative process but was overlooked by lawmakers. The likely next consequence will be cyber asylum. Domestic users will move to overseas services without restrictions rather than online spaces where videos and images they upload are unnecessarily constrained. Apart from the grand debate on censorship, this is a basic usage behavior of users seeking convenience. Ultimately, rather than preventing the N Room incident, only domestic operators will suffer again in global competition.

Equally controversial as the N Room Prevention Act is the ‘Online Platform Fairness Act (Onple Act).’ Platforms and small and medium-sized merchants should develop through mutual growth. If platforms lose competitiveness, it will eventually have a more negative impact on small and medium-sized merchants. However, the Onple Act overlooks this situation and fixes the relationship between platforms and small and medium-sized merchants as a conflict between the stronger and the weaker party.

According to the ‘2021 Survey on Online Platform Users’ released by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, among businesses using platforms such as open markets, delivery applications (apps), accommodation apps, and real estate apps, 74.1% earned more than half of their annual sales in 2020 through online platforms. Among them, 27.7% experienced sales growth of over 50%. Although 71.3% responded that brokerage fees were burdensome, fee reductions should not be mandated by law. It is most desirable to activate platform competition according to market principles to induce competition in fee reductions. It is questionable how much the status of small and medium-sized merchants can improve even if the Onple Act is enforced. Rather, if platform competitiveness weakens, small and medium-sized merchants may lose their entry platforms or face the more inconvenient situation of using overseas platforms.

Unfortunately, behind such important legislative initiatives lies ‘conflict-inducing propaganda.’ Propaganda is dangerous because it emphasizes extreme thinking and excludes opposing opinions, making rational discussion difficult. Criticism of the content of the N Room Prevention Act is dismissed as supporting illegal services like N Room. Similarly, those who criticize the Onple Act, which claims fairness while representing small and medium-sized merchants, are regarded as mere henchmen of large platform corporations.

The recently proposed ‘Netflix Act’ in the National Assembly is no different. Criticism or opposition to this bill is seen as supporting the unscrupulous use of domestic internet networks by foreign companies. Legislation should not be pursued in this manner. Laws are a means to resolve conflicts, not to deepen them. The moment lawmakers’ shallow propaganda becomes accepted by society, that society will fall into a vortex of confusion and conflict. It is time for presidential candidates to present their basic directions on internet regulation. Unfortunately, the proposals so far seem unable to overcome the legislative form of propaganda.

Kim Hyun-kyung, Professor, Graduate School of IT Policy, Seoul National University of Science and Technology