[2023 National Audit] 'Han-Chung Click Support & Daekkaemun'... Regular Kakao in National Audit

Lee Dong-kwan, Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, is reporting on his duties at the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee's audit held at the National Assembly on the 10th. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

On the 10th, when the National Assembly's audit began, regular visitor Kakao heated up the audit session due to controversy over its support service for the Hangzhou Asian Games.

Lee Dong-kwan, Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, stated at the National Assembly Science, Technology, Broadcasting and Communications Committee audit, “We will work with the National Assembly to promote legislative improvements, such as specifying the scope of macro usage prohibition within portal sites and enhancing the accountability of portal representatives.”

This remark was aimed at the recent controversy over public opinion manipulation, which arose after it was revealed that two specific overseas internet addresses (IP addresses) accounted for two-thirds of the ‘click support’ on the portal Daum during the Korea-China men’s soccer quarterfinal match at the Hangzhou Asian Games in China.

According to the investigation, two overseas IPs accounted for 19.89 million out of 19.93 million overseas IP clicks (99.8%) on the ‘click support’ page. In particular, some users were found to have abused macro (repetitive automatic execution) programs, leading to the controversy over public opinion manipulation.

Chairman Lee said, “Considering the influence of portals, which effectively play the role of the media, there is a national consensus on the need to strengthen the accountability of portals,” adding, “When legislating, we will ensure fairness between domestic and foreign operators to prevent reverse discrimination against domestic operators.”

In response to a question from Park Chan-dae, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, who suggested that the manipulation might have been a prank by domestic internet users, Chairman Lee said, “Even if it was a personal prank, if such incidents occur due to manipulation by hostile forces such as China or North Korea during elections or major national crises, it would be unacceptable. Please understand this as the fundamental intent.”

On the same day, there were also criticisms that Kakao filters comments with political bias. The issue started when Daum’s AI-based comment filtering function (SafeBot) masked the term ‘Daekkaemun’ in comments.

Regarding this, Park Sung-joong, a member of the People Power Party, criticized, “It is as if internal employees and some experts went through a data labeling process to regulate comments,” adding, “Kakao’s comment regulation is at the level of prior censorship that suppresses political freedom of expression and is no different from manipulating public opinion.”

A Kakao official explained, “‘Daekka,’ which includes ‘daegari’ meaning an animal’s head and also used as a vulgar term for a person, is judged as a vulgar word, so words containing it such as ‘Daekkayun’ and ‘Daekkaemun’ are subject to masking.”

‘Daekkaemun’ is a critical expression targeting supporters of former President Moon Jae-in, meaning ‘even if the head is broken, (support) Moon Jae-in.’ In other words, words containing ‘Daekka’ include expressions of bodily harm, so SafeBot has been masking them.

In fact, expressions with political interpretations such as ‘Munjoe-in,’ ‘Munjaeang,’ ‘Jjijjaemyeong,’ ‘Gaeddal,’ and ‘Ijoemyeong’ were left exposed. Kakao explained that this complies with the Korea Communications Standards Commission’s ‘Internet Content Rating Service (SafeNet).’