{"id":70355,"date":"2026-07-01T02:28:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T02:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/70355\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T02:28:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T02:28:06","slug":"south-korea-fake-news-law-triggers-free-speech-censorship-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/70355\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea \u2018fake news\u2019 law triggers free speech, censorship fears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A viral <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/youtube-and-youtubers?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">YouTube<\/a> video, a one-star review on a delivery app, a heated post on a parenting community \u2013 all of these will fall under the same legal standard in <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/south-korea?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">South Korea<\/a> starting next Tuesday.The revised Information and Communications Network Act, widely known as the \u201cfake news\u201d law, introduces punitive damages for YouTubers with more than 100,000 subscribers and high-traffic <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/tiktok?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TikTok<\/a> accounts if they display what authorities define as \u201cunlawful\u201d content. Platforms such as Naver, Kakao, Google and Meta stand to face steep penalties if they fail to police such content.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The enforcement decree spells out who can be sued for punitive damages over illegal and fabricated information.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Individuals on online platforms such as YouTube or TikTok who have posted at least three pieces of content over the past three months and either have more than 100,000 subscribers or average more than 100,000 monthly views in that period will fall under the definition of major online information producers.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">If they are found to have deliberately spread false information that causes harm to obtain an unfair advantage, judges can impose damages of up to five times the proven loss. What can be considered an unfair advantage encompasses not just economic gains, but also intangible benefits such as expanding social or political influence.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Meanwhile, platforms with more than 1 million daily active users on average over the last three months are required to operate reporting and monitoring systems. Once a complaint is received, they must verify it through the new transparency centre under the state-run Korea Media and Communications Commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A viral YouTube video, a one-star review on a delivery app, a heated post on a parenting community&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[38429,426,38428,38432,1333,15180,2730,38430,15182,827,31,38431,15877,657,33,2373],"class_list":["post-70355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-korea","tag-article-58","tag-coupang","tag-daejang-dong-development-scandal","tag-digital-services-act","tag-europe","tag-facebook","tag-google","tag-heimtuckegesetz","tag-instagram","tag-kakao","tag-korea","tag-korea-media-and-communications-commission","tag-meta","tag-naver","tag-south-korea","tag-the-korea-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}