South Korean cyber defamation law

Cyber defamation or cyber insult in South Korean law is a crime or civil tort consisting of defamation or insult committed through a telecommunications network such as the Internet.

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Korean. (December 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions.

Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Korean Wikipedia article at [[:ko:사이버 모욕죄]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|ko|사이버 모욕죄}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

The crime of cyber defamation (사이버 명예훼손죄) is defined in the Information and Communications Network Act, which establishes a maximum term of imprisonment of three years if the insulting information is true and seven years if it is false.^[1] South Korea's criminal penalties for cyber defamation have attracted attention for their severity relative to other countries.

Background

Summarize

Perspective

The cyber defamation law arose from considerations by the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), South Korea's telecommunications and broadcasting regulator, of revising the telecommunications laws to impose more regulations and deeper scrutiny on major Internet portals.^[2]

Cyber insult legislation

Public anger over the 2008 suicide of celebrity Choi Jin-sil^[3] led to a legislative push for stronger legislation against cyberbullying, including the adoption of a real name system.^[4] Among the legislative items pushed by the government was a cyber insult law, which would have imposed greater penalties than those provided for criminal insult under Article 311 of the Penal Code.^[5] The legislation was sometimes referred to as the "Choi Jin-sil Law," although the family objected to this use of her name.^[6] The governing Grand National Party (GNP) supported the cyber insult law, while the opposition Democratic Party opposed it.^[7] A Research & Research survey of 800 Korean people conducted on 14 January 2009 showed that 60% supported the GNP-led bill dealing with cyber defamation, and 32.1% opposed it.^[8]

Opposition to the proposed legislation gained force after the acquittal of Minerva in April 2009, which increased concerns over legislative restrictions on freedom of expression.^[9] The legislation was ultimately not adopted.^[10]

Remove ads

Impacts

South Korean plaintiffs have used cyber defamation law to subpoena information from the United States.^[11] In 2024 a California court granted the attorney representing NewJeans permission to obtain the identity information of a YouTube user. Other similar cases include HYBE on behalf of BTS seeking the identity of a Twitter user and Starship Entertainment on behalf of Wonyoung identifying an individual behind a YouTube channel with help from Google.^[12]

Online gaming

The vast majority of cyber defamation police reports in South Korea arise from online games. League of Legends is a game which is notorious for such acts. In 2015 alone, South Korean law enforcement received and investigated over 8000 reports of cyber defamation; over half of these cases involve League of Legends where players head to police stations as a retaliation after being verbally abused by teammates or opponents.^[13]

Remove ads

South Korean cyber defamation law

Background

Cyber insult legislation

Impacts

Online gaming

See also

References

Wikiwand - on