YouTube Registration Act in South Korea

According to a new regulation, YouTube users in South Korea are required to provide their identification information before they are allowed to post videos and other content on the media sharing site.  The public has responded that Google, who owns YouTube, is compromising its user’s freedom of speech on the Internet.  This follows right after last week’s incident of China blocking access of YouTube to its citizens, leading us to wonder if more governments will try to regulate content on the Internet, for social or political reasons.

South Korea which has the highest number of broadband connections per capita may have reasons to justify their new regulation.  In the country where 75% of households are connected to the Internet on broadband, cyberviolence (from harassment to online death-threats) is on the Internet are on the rise.There have been dozens of people indicted on charges of criminal contempt or slander for writing or spreading malicious online insults about victims.  Many victims of cyberviolence have lost their jobs, some even their lives, due to internet users marking them as pubic enemies.

“The idea is to make people feel more responsible for what they are posting on the Net,” said Oh Sang Kyoon, a director at the Ministry of Information and Communications. “Victims cannot live a normal life. They quit jobs and run away from society. They even flee the country. It’s like lynching victims in a ‘people’s court on the Web.’”