The Democratic Party Proposes Applying the 'Kim Young-ran Act' to Employees of Portals like Naver and Kakao

"Prevent Manipulation of Public Opinion Ahead of Next April's General Election"
Party Leadership Expresses Concerns Over Issues with Portals Like Naver
Park Dae-chul, Policy Committee Chair, Proposes Amendment to the Anti-Graft Act

The People Power Party is pushing legislation to apply the so-called 'Kim Young-ran Act (Act on the Prohibition of Improper Solicitation and Graft)' to representatives and employees of portal sites such as Naver and Kakao. Kim Ki-hyun, leader of the People Power Party, is reportedly urging the prompt passage of related bills to prevent the possibility of public opinion manipulation ahead of the general election in April next year.

Kang Min-kuk, senior spokesperson for the People Power Party, said at a meeting with reporters after the Supreme Council meeting on the 11th, "The party leadership is seriously concerned about and fully aware of the problems of portal sites including Naver," adding, "(The amendment) could be handled through the standing committee or other legislative methods."

The People Power Party has already submitted a revision bill to the Act on the Prohibition of Improper Solicitation and Graft containing this content. Park Dae-chul, chairman of the Policy Committee, proposed an amendment in 2020 to include representatives and employees of portal sites such as Naver and Kakao under the scope of the Kim Young-ran Act. Since most news produced domestically is consumed through portal sites, the amendment aims to legally prevent portal site personnel from receiving external solicitations. The bill is currently pending in the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The party leadership recognizes that negative public opinion is being formed due to the biased listing of articles on portal sites. At the floor countermeasure meeting held on the 9th, Chairman Park said, "Up to page 8 of the search results for the keyword 'Yoon Seok-yeol' were filled with critical and disparaging articles about President Yoon Seok-yeol," criticizing, "Naver claims these articles are generated by algorithms, but this is a 'decepti-gorithm'." Secretary-General Lee Cheol-gyu also said, "When searching for Yoon Seok-yeol, articles about Ahn Cheol-soo, Yoo Seung-min, and third-party criticisms appear in the relevance ranking, which is impossible without manipulation," adding, "(Portal sites) are becoming monsters that can no longer be left unattended."

There are also plans to push for amendments to the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection (Information and Communications Network Act) to display the nationality of users based on their IP address location when using portal sites. The purpose is to prevent public opinion manipulation on domestic issues and topics by IP addresses located overseas, such as in North Korea.

In this regard, Leader Kim directly proposed an amendment in January to add provisions requiring the display of nationality based on the user's information and communications network access location. If the daily average number of users by type of information and communications service exceeds 100,000 and meets criteria prescribed by presidential decree, the amendment includes provisions allowing the display of the user's nationality or country name and whether the access is via proxy based on the user's usage and access location when distributing information through online comments or equivalent means.

Leader Kim also proposed an amendment to the Information and Communications Network Act that includes provisions prohibiting and punishing acts of manipulating public opinion through macro programs and other means. Since there are no clear punishment provisions for public opinion manipulation in the current law, this amendment aims to clarify them. The amendment stipulates that manipulating recommendation counts, etc., will be punishable by imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of up to 20 million won.