South Korea Introduces Measures to Block YouTube, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Apple, Netflix
2019-3-14, Tara O
South Korea introduces measures to block YouTube, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Apple, Netflix, and other online and social network services. Lee Hyo-sung (이효성), the Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC, 방송통신위원회), introduced a system to temporarily block these services on March 8, 2019. There is an uproar on social media about the potential for suppressing freedom of speech and the press.
KCC regulates broadcasters and other types of communications. The KCC Chair is one of six officials who report directly to President Moon Jae-in. Others who report directly to the president at the Blue House include National Security Advisor Chong Ui-yong (정의용) and Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs Cho Kuk (조국).
The KCC 2019 Plan for Pursuing Key Tasks (방송통신위원회 2019 주요업무추진계획), dated March 8, 2019, has a section titled “Strengthening the Regulation of Illegal information / Service” on page 12, which states “If it is impossible to correct illegal activities (three times), [the KCC] will introduce (as of February 2019) a system to order temporary cessation of services. This applies not only to domestic companies, but also to “foreign enterprises providing service through the internet” and it “strengthens the inspection of prohibited activities and expands the duty to evaluate protection of users.” it further stated in 2018, the KCC “conducted the first evaluation of app entrepreneurs, and in 2019, will expand to include entrepreneurs of social network services, such as YouTube and Facebook. (See the KCC 2019 Plan pdf below)
This plan, if implemented, could further suppress freedom of speech and freedom of the press, especially in the realm of the internet. KCC Chair Lee already helped the National Media Workers’ Union under the militant Korea Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) take over MBC and KBS broadcasting networks, which now broadcast pro-Moon government and pro-Kim Jong-un regime programs and news. For the hostile takeover of MBC, see here; for the hostile takeover of KBS, see here.
KCC recently took measures to block sites beginning with “https” (s for secure). It is monitoring citizens’ Server Name Indication (SNI) packets that are sent to “https” sites as a “handshake” before a secure connection occurs. This new step of examining SNI packets, said to prevent access to porn or illegal sites, can prevent access to all internet URL addresses beginning with “https.”
In addition, the Deobureo Minju Party already tried to censor certain YouTube programs by dubbing 104 of them “fake news.” National Assemblyman Park Kwang-on (Deobureo Minju) physically went to the office of Google Korea to ask Google to delete those programs. When Google refused because the content did not violate Google policy, Park summoned the head of Google Korea to the National Assembly for “tax evasion” and also about the YouTube programs
Failing to control Google, which is not a South Korean company, the new 2019 Plan for Pursuing Key Tasks can be seen as yet another way to control foreign service providers, such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, to prevent people sharing information that the Moon government does not approve of. It is through the social network services, such as YouTube and Facebook, that voices are aired–voices that are not heard in the major media, which are controlled by the Moon government and the National Media Workers’ Union. For more on the phenomena of expressing political voices through Youtube, see here. Contents other than political ones are also expressed through YouTube.
Many YouTubers are concerned that their YouTube programs will no longer be accessible to the public. They and their followers view these measures as the Moon administration’s efforts to suppress freedom of speech and freedom of the press. They lament that South Korea is becoming more like China. It will also dry up income for YouTubers, which matches one of the Moon administration’s methods of silencing other political opponents–by denying them income; in this case, the income from YouTube.
Here is a sample of YouTubers concerned about the Moon administration’s efforts to block service providers on the internet
My Channel May Disappear
PennMike can Disappear?
Moon Jae-in “Blocking Google, YouTube, Neflix, Facebook”
The Reasons why Google, YouTube are Facing Political Revenge in South Korea
Moon Jae-ang could Restrict Google, YouTube, Facebook
Note: “Jae-ang” means “disaster.” It is a word play on Moon Jae-in’s name
KCC that Declared Blocking Google, Facebook, and All
Block YouTube, Block Facebook, Block Google…Finally Becoming Reality
Moon Jae-in Banning Google, YouTube, Facebook, Netflix. A Beginning of a Dictatorship
YouTube Will Soon Be Blocked
Sample comments from various YouTube programs from the YouTubers and the viewers:
- “[Moon] talked about the ‘Chinese Dream,’ he really means to follow China”
- “Blocking Google, YouTube, Facebook, etc., all in the name of blocking porn”
- “Can you imagine foreign services on the internet such as Google, Netflix, youTube, Instagram, Facebook not being able to provide service to our country, which was once free? I never even heard of such a thing since I’ve been born, so I couldn’t believe it. So I had to read the article three times in a row.”
- “Miracle of the Han River is turning into the collapse of the Han River”
- “That’s why they’re trying to remove ‘free” from ‘free democracy’ in the constitution”
- “Republic of Korea, 1948-2017”
- “South Joseon Socialist Republic, 2017- “
The Moon administration and the ruling Deobureo Minju Party have continued to pursue ways to silence political voices that they disapprove. How far will the Moon administration go to suppress the freedom of speech?
