South Korea Bans Anonymous Posting On Popular Websites

from the no-anonymity-for-you dept

While the US courts have been quite clear over and over again that people have a right to post anonymously online, other countries have been a lot less open to the concept. Over in South Korea, we recently covered the lawsuit against an anonymous (ok, formerly anonymous) blogger who was accused of spreading “false rumors.” Apparently there was also another recent case in the country, involving photos anonymously posted online of a woman who failed to clean up after her dog. In response, Korea has now passed a law that requires anyone posting on a site that has over 100,000 unique visitors a day to reveal their real names and national ID (found via Michael Scott). This seems quite extreme. There are certainly pros and cons to allowing anonymous speech, but it seems to go overboard to outlaw it completely on any relatively popular site.

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Comments on “South Korea Bans Anonymous Posting On Popular Websites”

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21 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

I don't think it's Teryaki...

What do they eat in South Korea? I am being very genuine in this question. Besides rice, what qualifies as “South Korean Cuisine”?

If the country was allowed to fall into poverty, by stopping purchase of their stuff, on the grounds of freedom or human rights violations, what types of dishes and desserts would we loose?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: I don't think it's Teryaki...

Oh. Well, I’m trying new Windows 7. I like it but there’s a few problems- 1) they took the Google buttons off of the computer, flagged Google as a nefarious site and the hostsfile is locked! Lastly, I am forced to use Live Search!

Thanks for the link, Tgeigs. Your a life saver!

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: I don't think it's Teryaki...

>Oh. Well, I’m trying new Windows 7. I like it but
>there’s a few problems- 1) they took the Google
>buttons off of the computer, flagged Google
>as a nefarious site and the hostsfile is
>locked! Lastly, I am forced to use Live Search!

First off switch to Firefox. IE is generally a hazard with a barn door or three left open some where. Plus M$ is way too slow to get patches on the street. You should only use IE when nothing else will do.

I tend to make Google my homepage so I can get to it in a click.

I keep google as my home page.

Tgeigs says:

Re: Re: Re:2 I don't think it's Teryaki...

Correct, w/one caveat.

Not only should you convert to Firefox and NEVER touch IE again, but not only make Google your homepage, but sign up for a throw away Gmail account and get yourself an iGoogle age. That is where I discovered Techdirt via RSS feed. On one age I have the TD and Slashdot RSS, plus updated sports live box scores for NHL/MLB/NBA/NFL/NCAA, plus radar weather, CNN, and SI. Get it, love it, thank me later…

Joe says:

I don’t think it’s extreme, put into context.

1. They have a very active netizen culture there.
2. They have an anti-fan phenomenon there.
3. Anti-fans (people who take an active interest in defaming or hating a particular person/celebrity) have directly/indirectly caused deaths.

To everyone else around the world, such behavior is totally absurd, but it occurs there.

Am not a foremost expert in this matter, and i’m sure there are other issues surrounding this one, but from what i do know, it’s to curb such hate crimes.

Barack says:

Re: Re:

Anti-fans (people who take an active interest in defaming or hating a particular person/celebrity) have directly/indirectly caused deaths.

Oh, you mean like DailyKos, Huffington Post, New York Times, Media Metters, Perez (the fag) Hilton, Janet Napolitano, George Clooney, Rosie (the pig) O’Donnell……just to name a few

Seoul dude says:

Anon posting

A poster above suggests that Korean websites don’t check id. Yup they absolutely do. You cannot even get anon korean language webmail accounts anymore.

Basically, they take your details and also your equivalent social security number which is totally unique to you and is registered at birth. They also have your fingerprints tied to that number. The SSN and prints are held in your own city hall and also centrally.

It’s frankly orwellian.

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