'Kakao Outage Prevention Act' Passes Science and ICT Committee

The Industry Says "Sympathy, But..."
Two Years Ago, 'Double Regulation' Opposition Sank It in the Legislation Committee
Changed Atmosphere After SK C&C IDC Fire... Will the Bill Gain Momentum?

On the 16th, Gyeonggi Fire Investigation officials entered Building A of the SK C&C Pangyo Campus in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, where a fire had occurred. The fire broke out at the SK C&C data center around 3:30 PM the previous day, causing the services of server tenants such as Kakao and Naver to go down one after another. In particular, Kakao services including KakaoTalk Messenger, the Daum portal, KakaoT, KakaoPage, and KakaoPay experienced widespread outages, resulting in a nationwide "blackout situation" lasting over 10 hours. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

The so-called 'Kakao Outage Prevention Act,' which requires value-added telecommunications service providers, not just period telecommunications operators, to establish a government disaster management basic plan, passed the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee yesterday. Two years ago, the bill failed to pass the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, but following the 'Kakao incident,' calls for related legislation have intensified, putting the platform industry on alert.

According to the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee on the 2nd, the full meeting held yesterday approved the 'Broadcasting and Communications Development Basic Act Amendment,' the 'Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection Amendment,' and the 'Telecommunications Business Act Amendment' by bipartisan agreement.

The amendment to the Broadcasting and Communications Development Basic Act (Bangbal Act) centers on measures to establish data center redundancy, as the Kakao outage incident was caused by a fire at SK C&C's Pangyo data center (IDC), and includes expanding the scope of operators required to establish a government disaster management basic plan to include value-added telecommunications service providers such as Kakao. Value-added telecommunications service providers are defined as those with an average daily user count of over 1 million or a traffic share exceeding 1%.

The amendment to the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, proposed by Representative Park Sung-joong and Representative Byun Jae-il of the Democratic Party, stipulates that in the event of a disaster causing interruption of information and communication services, the status and measures taken must be reported to the Minister of Science and ICT. Operators who lease data centers, like Kakao, will also be subject to obligations for outage preparedness. The partial amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act requires value-added telecommunications service providers to submit data on service stability measures and traffic status to the Minister of Science and ICT, and adds securing service stability to the scope of duties of domestic agents.

Two years ago, the amendment to the Bangbal Act also passed the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee but ultimately failed to clear the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. At that time, the bill was pushed following the 2018 KT Ahyeon station fire incident, but was scrapped amid strong criticism from operators citing double regulation.

However, the atmosphere is different this time. The large-scale Kakao service outage caused by the SK C&C data center fire on October 15 made the influence of platform operators palpable, and a consensus was formed on the need to prepare for broadcasting and communications disasters. The social impact was significant, and since the bill passed the standing committee with bipartisan agreement, it is expected that subsequent procedures will proceed smoothly.

The platform industry, including portals, agrees on the need for institutional measures to prevent incidents like the Kakao outage if the amendment passes, but they are concerned about increased costs and the burden of double regulation. The industry views the 'Kakao Outage Prevention Act' as double regulation since disaster preparedness protection measures are already stipulated under the current Information and Communications Network Act.

Given the enormous costs involved in data redundancy, there are concerns that it could become a barrier to entry for new businesses. Choi Sung-jin, CEO of Korea Startup Forum, pointed out, "It is highly likely to become an obstacle to startup growth," adding, "Including platforms in laws that handle telecommunications companies and broadcasters that receive frequency allocations from the government does not fit the legal framework and only causes side effects."