Korea Communications Standards Commission
Encyclopedia
The Korea Communications Standards Commission is South Korea
's Internet censorship
body.
The KCSC replaced an earlier body, the Information and Communication Ethics Committee.
On September 2011, the KCSC has decided to open up its three discussion committees to the public.
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
's Internet censorship
Internet censorship
Internet censorship is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet. It may be carried out by governments or by private organizations either at the behest of government or on their own initiative...
body.
The KCSC replaced an earlier body, the Information and Communication Ethics Committee.
On September 2011, the KCSC has decided to open up its three discussion committees to the public.
Censorship
- It is alleged that the KCSC has been heavily biased in favor towards the Lee Myung-bak governmentLee Myung-bak governmentThe Lee Myung-bak government is sixth consecutive government of the Sixth Republic of South Korea. It was officially launched on February 25th, 2008, under Lee Myung-bak's victory in the 2007 presidential election...
. On August 3rd, 2008, KCSC requested the internet portal, Daum, to delete posts and commentaries that express against Lee Myung-bakLee Myung-bakLee Myung-bak is the President of South Korea. Prior to his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction and the mayor of Seoul. He is married to Kim Yoon-ok and has three daughters and one son. His older brother is Lee Sang-deuk, a South Korean politician. He attends the...
during the heydays of the anti-beef imports2008 US beef protest in South KoreaThe 2008 US beef protest in South Korea was an importation issue in South Korea – United States relations after the closure of the South Korean market to US beef imports upon the discovery of a US case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in 2003...
. - Some lay members of the National AssemblyNational Assembly of South KoreaThe National Assembly of the Republic of Korea is a 299-member unicameral legislature. The latest general elections were held on April 9, 2008. Single-member constituencies comprise 245 of the National Assembly's seats, while the remaining 54 are allocated by proportional representation...
protested against KCSC's censorship-like decision to monitor contents in social network services and mobile appsMobile appsMobile apps, also called mobile applications, are software applications, usually designed to run on smartphones and tablet computers. They are available through application distribution platforms which are typically operated by the owner of the mobile operating system, such as the App Store,...
. - Moon Yong-sik (문용식) CEO of the South Korean internet contents company, Nowcom, has expressed concerns about the KCSC becoming the tool to monitor and to censor online contents that express anti-government and anti-big business messages.
- The KCSC had considered penalizing SBS and MBC for showing TwitterTwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
messages that are critical against President Lee and his government.
Criticism
- Fans of South Korea's popular variety show, Infinite ChallengeInfinite ChallengeInfinite Challenge is a Korean television entertainment program, distributed and syndicated by MBC. As of June and July 2009, it still has the largest market share for its timeslot, between 13.8 percent and 19.7 percent of Korean television viewers watched Muhan Dojeon at 6:40 PM every Saturday...
criticized the KCSC for pointing out negative remarks towards the show.