가짜 뉴스, 해외에서는 어떻게 대응하고 있고 한국이 어떤 것을 적용해야 되나
The fast dissemination of hoax, or what we call fake news, is taking the world by storm,... affecting people's views on virtually any topic: from politics, social issues to science.
For the second of our three part series, Oh Soo-young shows us how governments around the world are attempting to tackle the wave of disinformation,... and what kind of lessons to take home to apply here in Korea.
South Korea already enforces laws against defamation and false information during election campaigns,... but the government is seeking ways to target "fake news" in particular.
Looking for examples,... the liberals have endorsed Germany's network enforcement law which gives internet firms 24 hours to delete hate speech.
But others argue the law does not apply to the Korean context.
"It's just about hate speech, so it's not a proper answer to fake news at all... the good side is that the platforms are forced to react... but the bad parts are that the platform is now in the role to decide if something is hate speech or not."
"Germany has this historical background, holocaust denial, things like that which is why they're taking serious measures against it. I don't know if that kind of measure will be effective. There's always this danger there's going to be a chilling effect on the media and people's freedom of expression."
Such concerns surfaced in Malaysia, this year, when it banned citizens from spreading fake news lest they face up to six years in prison and a fine of 123-thousand U.S. dollars.
Legislators tabled a bill to revoke the law in August.
Rather than a repressive system, some suggest a more fluid, positive approach such as promoting greater transparency.
"In the UK, for instance, there would be duty of platform itself, to disclose who is the source, actually specifying sponsor content, for how long and who is the target audience. The EU has identified this disclosure requirement as one of the ways forward, but at the same time this is a code of a conduct. So nothing is really mandatory."
It's clear that cooperation from online platforms is crucial.
"Looking up how certain information is provided, are cropped, are discussed, and therefore adopt the most innovative forms, apps or form checkers in external actors that might facilitate their tasks."
Experts say governments and digital actors must work together to find the right balance of basic rules and self-regulatory measures that protect society from detrimental content,... while preserving basic liberties.
They say online platforms must also move away from their current business models based around generating the most clicks,... and that platforms should invest in systems that will provide their users with higher quality content and information.
Oh Soo-young, Arirang News.
