Folks, South Korea is one of the most liberal and democratic countries in Asia, as well
as being – not surprisingly – one of the most connected and technologically advanced
countries in the world.
The contrast with its impoverished and tyrannical northern neighbor is striking – like the
difference between night and day.
And, in fact, here on VisualPolitik, we’ve already talked about some of these differences
in various videos.
Because this time we’re not going to talk about the South Korean economy or about its
vertiginous market-oriented development, or anything like that.
In this video we’re going to talk about the internet.
You’ve probably heard that South Korea is the number one country in the world in terms
of volume of online connections.
Check this out.
South Korea has the most users connected to fiber optic networks, almost 31% of its entire
population.
In addition, 96% of South Koreans have access to the Internet, the largest percentage on
the planet.
They are also the third biggest social network users; no less than 85% of all South Koreans
use them regularly.
To give you a better idea, this compares with 70% in the United States.
And that’s not all.
Nowadays, it’s also the country that markets the fastest internet speed, 2.5 gigs of download
that will soon become 10.
And if that weren’t enough, it’s the country with the highest smartphone penetration in
the world.
94% of South Koreans have one.
Basically, South Korea is super connected
But, as if that weren’t enough…
Korea – we’re talking south of course – has the most implemented 4G network in
the world, and has been one of the first countries to market the now incredibly famous 5G.
But...
Okay... enough facts.
You get the picture, right?
South Korea boasts great technological development and an enviable telco market.
But, folks, as we like to say on VisualPolitik... take a closer look because not everything
that glitters is gold.
According to the NGO Freedom House, which creates an annual benchmark index on network
freedom, South Korea barely reaches the “partially free” status.
This basically puts it at the same level as countries like Nigeria or Kyrgyzstan – which,
as everyone knows, are exemplary democracies.
But that raises the question...
What exactly is happening in South Korea?
Why do they have such a low level of network freedom?
Well, in this video, we’re going to discuss a not-so-well known South Korean problem:
Government control of the internet.
(A CENSORSHIP TRADITION)
All countries have their angels and demons, and of course, South Korea is no different.
South Korean democracy is very recent, it barely started in 1988, and is still an imperfect
democracy.
Throughout its short life and without exception, each and every one of its democratic presidents
has had a clear tendency towards censorship and information control.
Whether due to a lack of political culture or because of moral and cultural issues linked
to their Confucian past, the State is still very, very paternalistic and there’s a strong
hierarchical vision of society.
This means that elders and bosses are never questioned.
In addition, there’s a strong sense of community, in comparison to the more individualistic
and less rigid societies of the West.
This reality explains why the country’s leaders have felt justified in controlling
certain aspects – often too many – of people's lives, and in limiting their citizens’
ability to express themselves freely.
All this, of course, in the name of the common good.
This often involves controlling freedom of speech and, of course, limiting criticisms
of authority figures or the ruling political party of the moment.
However, folks, the government uses two issues in particular to justify all its censorship
activity: protection against North Korea, and public
morals.
You see, in order to block content, the government resorts to the National Security Law.
A law that, among other things, prohibits communism in practice, as well as any declaration
in favor of North Korea or subversive ideas that encourage the elimination of the State.
This Law applies not only to the physical terrain but also to cyberspace, for example,
blocking or closing any web pages that speak in favor of the northern regime.
And then, there’s another key factor that is becoming more and more important lately:
The ban on pornography.
Yes, you heard that correctly.
South Korea is one of the few countries in the world where pornography is explicitly
prohibited.
Specifically, since 2008.
Actually it’s not just pornography but also gambling and many online games that are blocked
under the pretext of being “indecent websites”.
But don’t think this is new…
Not at all.
See, a few years ago, between 2001 and 2003, the then government of the center-left Nobel
Peace Prize winner Kim Dae Jung, set about blocking websites with homosexual content
as if there were no tomorrow, because they were, literally, “spaces of obscenity and
perversion”.
Quite a mild statement.
Now, of course, if you want to be an ace censor, that is if you want to chop and change the
internet to suit your views, you need to organize yourself.
It is precisely due to that that in 2008, the conservative president Lee Myung Bak created
a public body to control the internet:
The Korea Communications Standards Commission or KCSC.
This commission has the power to block and even close websites without even requiring
a court order.
The problem, folks, is that instead of moving towards an increasingly free Internet, South
Korea seems to be heading backwards at full speed.
The most recent figures, from 2017, on websites blocked and eliminated by the KCSC are simply
scary.
Nearly 67,000, 67,000 websites were blocked and more than 15,000 were eliminated.
In a single year!
Come on, with this kind of data you could say that things are getting out of hand...
Folks, it is scary to see politicians blocking and closing websites at will.
And, on top of that, 2017 was the first year since the commission first began to operate
in 2008 in which the number of blocked and deleted pages decreased a little.
In other words, it was a good year.
Wow.
But, having reached this point, the question that comes to mind is: how is South Korea
censoring the Internet?
How far can the government go to prevent the population from accessing the “immoral”?
And what’s even more important:
Could VisualPolitik be considered an immoral website?
Well, let's see.
(A TANGLED INDEPENDENT CENSOR?)
Folks, the truth is that censorship in the South Korean network is very serious and not
very transparent.
And the key to all of this is in the KCSC, which I mentioned a moment ago.
This so-called independent commission, is nestled within another, Korea’s Communications
Commission or KCC.
The KCSC regulates the internet and the KCC regulates all means of communication.
And the key question is, how do they work?
Well, the KCC has five members, two of which are directly appointed by the South Korean
president, including its director.
The other three are appointed by the National Assembly, the country's parliament.
So… as you can see, a non-politically and unbiased commission, quite independent…
In this way, the KCSC, the commission that regulates the internet, is responsible for
identifying websites that violate any law, sites such as pro-North Korean websites, pornography
or online gambling, but also anything that the agency considers as cyber-defamation or
anti-military content.
That’s when a content deletion, blocking or total closure of the website request is
issued to the KCC, which transmits it to the media service provider, who must comply with
the order.
And folks, these kinds of requests aren’t often rejected.
Although, formally, the service provider has 15 days to appeal the request.
The truth is that after the deadline, it is the KCSC who decides what sanctions and punishments
will be applied based on the Law and content in question.
Without any judge interfering at any time in the process.
What do you think?
To us it sounds too much like outright censorship, which clashes with the foundations of freedom
and democracy.
But that’s not all.
In 2017, a new president came to power.
Human rights lawyer Moon Jae In seized power after a shady corruption scandal involving
his conservative predecessor, Park Geun Hye.
Many Western media painted him as a reformer who would bring new progress to the country,
but is it really like that in the field of Internet freedom?
Well...
No...
I can already say that isn’t the case.
Listen up.
(MOON JAE IN, HEAVY HAND AND A PRETTY FACE)
You saw it here, on this channel.
In a previous video we criticized Moon Jae In for his economic management, but what about
individual liberties, and more specifically, the internet?
Because we’re basically talking about a center-left politician who has been trying
to convey the image that South Korea has overcome a dark era of corruption after the scandals
of his predecessor, Park.
Something that he did with a campaign that washed his image with quite populist dyes.
A campaign with which he obtained a chilling approval rating of 80% among the South Koreans
at the beginning of his mandate.
Quite the popular fervor…
In addition, his dialogues with North Korea and summits with Kim Jong Un have also helped
him to be seen as a man of peace and reconciliation, both inside and outside of Korea.
But, just a second, is it all as rosy as it seems?
Well… no.
If his economic management is already leaving quite a lot to be desired, in terms of individual
liberties and network freedom… he isn’t doing too well either.
Censorship Is a Bipartisan Pursuit in South Korea.
The Diplomat.)
Yes folks.
According to a report by the Joongang Ilbo, one of the three largest newspapers in South
Korea, censorship in the Moon era has expanded even more in the political arena.
For example, the Moon government withdrew funding from the only think tank in the United
States that specializes in Korean issues, the U.S.-Korea Institute, or USKI.
Why?
Well… it didn’t have to do with austerity, but with USKI being critical of Moon's overly
friendly attitudes with Kim Jong Un and his North Korean regime.
Korea think tank at U.S. university to close after Seoul withdraws funding.
Washington Post)
Mind you, the problem isn’t that he withdrew financing from a Think Tank in Washington,
but the idea of ​​using public money to reward friends and punish critics.
But, that’s not all.
The most serious and most worrisome point for the International Community, is the new
form of censorship that Moon's Government has implemented on the Internet.
It is considered “Chinese-style censorship” because it’s the same method Beijing uses
to block websites.
Yes, you heard that correctly.
South Korea is copying China in terms of freedoms.
Surely you did not expect that.
Since the start of this year, 2019, the South Korean government has begun to open data packages
from encrypted HTTPS website serves, which are considered the safest.
The KCSC used Server Name Indication, or SNI, espionage to block 895 websites in February
with this method.
One of the websites blocked with this method was, for example, (Pornhub) the largest pornographic
website in the world.
But, how does this method work?
Well check this out, if the user tries to access an https website considered “harmful”
by the government, the KCSC opens the data packages to find the server, whose information
isn’t encrypted.
That way, by knowing the server, the government can block access to the ‘harmful’ sites.
But that’s not all.
If the government comes up with the key to decrypt the information, it can even specifically
see your internet visits and access personal information such as your IP address.
In short, Moon's government could be spying on every packet of data that South Korean
netizens receive and choose to block access, if it's an unauthorized page.
That is, it can control what each person does on the internet at an individual level.
Privacy?
What’s privacy?
And it goes without saying folks that this isn’t typical of free and democratic regimes,
or leaders with a conciliatory image, such as Moon’s.
Here at VisualPolitik, we love South Korea, and we believe that it’s an exemplary country
in most aspects.
And it’s precisely because we love it that we’re worried about this lack of network
freedom.
But now it's your turn:
Is the censorship and espionage of Internet users justified in order to “maintain morals”?
What do you think about the online control framework that South Korea has developed?
Is Moon really committed to freedom?
Leave your answer in the comments and in this survey.
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