By Kim Junghyun
The mass access to the Internet, which helped ex-CEO Lee
Myung-bak to his resounding presidential election victory, went
on to become the instrument helping shatter that popularity in
just five months in office.
"We have to guard against 'infodemics,' in which
inaccurate, false information is disseminated, prompting social
unrest that spreads like an epidemic," Lee told parliament
early in July.
Lee has every reason to take it personally.
Barely had he taken office in February than he was accused
of putting the nation's health at risk by agreeing to import
U.S. beef, long banned because of concerns over mad cow
disease.
Much of the fear, at times hysteria, was fanned by blogs
and discussion boards that crammed into South Korea's Internet
space. It helped trigger mass protests that daily clogged
central Seoul in late spring and early summer as tens of
thousands took to the streets to demand U.S. beef be kept from
South Korean tables.
An early hot topic was a scientific study, heavily
distorted in the retelling but widely believed judging by
Internet postings, that Koreans had a genetic predisposition to
catching the disease.
Another was that a beef by-product used in the manufacture
of diapers put the nation's babies at risk of succumbing to
bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
But the government argues its concern goes beyond attacks
on its policies, and rules are needed to bring a largely
uncontrolled media into line with its traditional counterpart.
Stories abound of people being cruelly and very publicly
hounded on the Internet, sometimes to the point of suicide.
The Justice Ministry is working on what it calls a Cyber
Defamation Law.
"The reality is that we lack the means to effectively deal
with harmful Internet messages," a ministry official said.
The Korean Communications Commission, which regulates the
industry, has come up with its own rules to oblige portals to
suspend sites stepping outside the limits and force Websites to
use real names of anyone posting comments.
The commission says the measures are designed to improve
security and reduce the spread of false information.
FREEDOM
(Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Jerry Norton)
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