Political Fake News Was Expected, but 70% of KISO Cases Involved Promotional Posts

Political fake news may have been the expected target, but promotional content dominated South Korea’s first wave of misinformation reviews under the amended online communications law. About 70% of the cases involved posts advertising products or services.

The Korea Internet Self-Governance Organization said its special committee on fabricated information reviewed 27 complaints submitted by five member companies, Naver, Kakao, Daum, Nate and Danggeun, after the law took effect in July. It judged 23 of them not to constitute fabricated information. The other four did not reach a substantive review because the posts had been deleted or temporary measures had been taken over defamation or other rights violations.

Nineteen cases fell into the category of information, reviews or promotional posts. Examples included information about travel companies and accommodation, restaurant receipt reviews, beauty-treatment testimonials and product discount notices. Other cases involved disputes or accusations, entertainment content, and claims or opinions related to academic and religious subjects.

KISO said inaccurate or false content does not automatically qualify as fabricated information. Its guidelines first examine whether content is false or manipulated, then consider intent to harm others or obtain an unfair benefit, as well as possible damage to personal rights, property rights or the public interest. Cases included a blog post introducing a boarding house with a hotel-lobby photograph, and a post promoting an unverified drug as a cure-all.

The guidelines exclude subjective evaluations, opinions and issues at the center of unresolved academic, scientific or religious debates. The review did not cover Google and Meta, global technology companies that are not KISO members. KISO said at least two such companies are discussing membership. Media professor Hwang Yong-seok said narrowly applying the concept was intended to avoid giving platforms excessive power through legally mandated removals.

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We applied the concept of fabricated information as narrowly as possible because making platform operators delete fabricated information on a legal basis could lead to the concentration of power in platforms.