The arrest of South Korean blogger Park Dae-sung (also known as ‘Minerva’) is the latest incident in the country’s drive to clamp down on online discussion.
The blogger was targeted for his outspoken online criticism of the country’s highly conservative Government. The arrest is not a one-off; it presages broader regulation of the internet in a country renowned for its high online penetration and technological advancement. The question for brands and media owners is whether this will have a serious impact on the web as an ad medium, and whether there are implications for other mature online markets.
1 Prompted by last year’s mass protests against its decision to resume importing US beef, the ruling Grand National Party, headed by President Lee Myung-bak, is proposing to revise the country’s media law to hold major online portals to the same level of accountability as news organisations. Additionally, a so-called cyber-defamation law will, if passed, enable the Korean Communications Commission (KCC) to block access to potentially slanderous content for a minimum deliberation period of 30 days. Anonymous posting by visitors to high-profile sites will become a thing of the past, meaning that individuals may also be held fully responsible for the effects of any damaging content that they choose to write or upload.
2 Executives at major portals operating in the market are concerned. One employee at Daum, which is Korea’s second-largest portal, said the measures presented a threat to the company’s business model, describing them in a national newspaper as “stingy punches” to the internet industry. The source said he expected limited freedom of expression to lead to a decline in usage - a sentiment echoed by Steve Yi, strategic planning director at Grey Korea. “Less freedom means less fun, so will make private sites more popular than open sites like search engine blogs,” he says.
3 If usage declines, at least in the short term, the cost of online media space for advertisers may in turn be driven down, says Yi. That opinion is shared by David Ketchum, chairman of the Asia Digital Marketing Association (ADMA), who says that the threat lies “in the potential of the regulations to reduce the size and engagement of the portals’ audiences, and therefore their attractiveness to advertisers”.
4 However, the long-term effects for media owners and advertisers are unclear. Noting the level of e-commerce in a market with one of the world’s highest rates of internet penetration, Tom Coyner, president of Soft Landing Consulting, argues that online advertising will remain steady. What’s more, many advertisers may ultimately welcome the regulations if they serve to clean up social media sites, says Ketchum.
5 Korea may not be alone among mature markets in moving towards a more regulated internet. Ketchum believes that online media owners across the region should expect to see greater oversight of their actions.
“When a medium is small and powerless it is left free because nobody cares. But when audience numbers and social and political impact grow, it’s only natural that governments should try to exert the same controls they have over mainstream media,” he says.
6 Yet as the Korean example is showing, governments may have a fight on their hands if they try to restrict the internet too severely. There has been some sympathy with the Government’s reforms following the deaths of Korean celebrities Choi Jin-sil and Ahn Jae-Hwan, who committed suicide last year following the online posting of malicious content relating to their financial circumstances. However, the treatment of ‘Minerva’ - who is being held under a law that could cost him a 50 million won (US$36,000) penalty or a prison term of up to five years - has provoked a public outcry at the abridgement of free speech.
Coyner says further governmental heavy-handedness is likely to prove counter-productive. “When [‘Minerva’] is found to be in the right, the people now supporting the Government will be less inclined to support it,” he says.
“The Government has to be careful. It is playing with fire if itpushes too hard with this.”
Brands
- There is the risk of an initial slowdown of traffic to portals as users become accustomed to a new online environment, but this may pass as familiarity and acceptance grow.
- One upside of greater online policing will be the removal of malicious articles, copyright violations and obscenities. This could make the social media environment more attractive to advertisers, if not users.
- The abandonment of anonymous posting theoretically offers opportunities for closer relationship- building and management.
Media owners
- Portals face the challenge of maintaining relevance and attractiveness to users.
- If web traffic plateaus, online media owners will have to work harder to sell inventory.
- Should these regulations be imposed successfully in Korea, governments elsewhere in the region will take note. Media owners outside Korea should begin plans for working under a more restricted environment.
Got a view?
Email [email protected]
The blogger was targeted for his outspoken online criticism of the country’s highly conservative Government. The arrest is not a one-off; it presages broader regulation of the internet in a country renowned for its high online penetration and technological advancement. The question for brands and media owners is whether this will have a serious impact on the web as an ad medium, and whether there are implications for other mature online markets.
1 Prompted by last year’s mass protests against its decision to resume importing US beef, the ruling Grand National Party, headed by President Lee Myung-bak, is proposing to revise the country’s media law to hold major online portals to the same level of accountability as news organisations. Additionally, a so-called cyber-defamation law will, if passed, enable the Korean Communications Commission (KCC) to block access to potentially slanderous content for a minimum deliberation period of 30 days. Anonymous posting by visitors to high-profile sites will become a thing of the past, meaning that individuals may also be held fully responsible for the effects of any damaging content that they choose to write or upload.
2 Executives at major portals operating in the market are concerned. One employee at Daum, which is Korea’s second-largest portal, said the measures presented a threat to the company’s business model, describing them in a national newspaper as “stingy punches” to the internet industry. The source said he expected limited freedom of expression to lead to a decline in usage - a sentiment echoed by Steve Yi, strategic planning director at Grey Korea. “Less freedom means less fun, so will make private sites more popular than open sites like search engine blogs,” he says.
3 If usage declines, at least in the short term, the cost of online media space for advertisers may in turn be driven down, says Yi. That opinion is shared by David Ketchum, chairman of the Asia Digital Marketing Association (ADMA), who says that the threat lies “in the potential of the regulations to reduce the size and engagement of the portals’ audiences, and therefore their attractiveness to advertisers”.
4 However, the long-term effects for media owners and advertisers are unclear. Noting the level of e-commerce in a market with one of the world’s highest rates of internet penetration, Tom Coyner, president of Soft Landing Consulting, argues that online advertising will remain steady. What’s more, many advertisers may ultimately welcome the regulations if they serve to clean up social media sites, says Ketchum.
5 Korea may not be alone among mature markets in moving towards a more regulated internet. Ketchum believes that online media owners across the region should expect to see greater oversight of their actions.
“When a medium is small and powerless it is left free because nobody cares. But when audience numbers and social and political impact grow, it’s only natural that governments should try to exert the same controls they have over mainstream media,” he says.
6 Yet as the Korean example is showing, governments may have a fight on their hands if they try to restrict the internet too severely. There has been some sympathy with the Government’s reforms following the deaths of Korean celebrities Choi Jin-sil and Ahn Jae-Hwan, who committed suicide last year following the online posting of malicious content relating to their financial circumstances. However, the treatment of ‘Minerva’ - who is being held under a law that could cost him a 50 million won (US$36,000) penalty or a prison term of up to five years - has provoked a public outcry at the abridgement of free speech.
Coyner says further governmental heavy-handedness is likely to prove counter-productive. “When [‘Minerva’] is found to be in the right, the people now supporting the Government will be less inclined to support it,” he says.
“The Government has to be careful. It is playing with fire if itpushes too hard with this.”
Brands
- There is the risk of an initial slowdown of traffic to portals as users become accustomed to a new online environment, but this may pass as familiarity and acceptance grow.
- One upside of greater online policing will be the removal of malicious articles, copyright violations and obscenities. This could make the social media environment more attractive to advertisers, if not users.
- The abandonment of anonymous posting theoretically offers opportunities for closer relationship- building and management.
Media owners
- Portals face the challenge of maintaining relevance and attractiveness to users.
- If web traffic plateaus, online media owners will have to work harder to sell inventory.
- Should these regulations be imposed successfully in Korea, governments elsewhere in the region will take note. Media owners outside Korea should begin plans for working under a more restricted environment.
Got a view?
Email [email protected]
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