[Sulli's Instagram]
Daum, a web portal run by Kakao, provides news articles from various media to attract users. Portal users are allowed to leave comments freely as long as they are logged in. The most popular item was related to entertainment articles and celebrities. Kakao is the country's second-largest web service provider after Naver.
Daum will stop its comment feature for entertainment news this month and the related keyword search service by the end of this year. Separately, Kakao Talk, the country's most popular messenger app, will immediately discontinue its people-related keyword search suggestion feature in the "real-time Issue" section.
"The launch of the service was aimed at creating a healthy public forum, but now we cannot help but acknowledge its side effects," Kakao's co-CEO Yeo Min-soo said on Friday. "As the recent unfortunate event showed, many say that the level of character abuse in the entertainment section's news comments has increased to harm the health of the public debate center," he said, referring to Sulli's tragic death on October 14.
Various forms of cyberbullying such as online hate comments against celebrities have long been a social problem in South Korea. Dogged by hate comments and malicious rumors created by cyberbullies, Sulli committed suicide at her house, sparking widespread concerns about cyberbullying.
"We also judged that the side effects of the related search terms are serious, such as privacy infringement and defamation, contrary to the original intention of providing diverse information to users and enhancing their convenience in searching," Yeo said.
Daum and Kakao Talk will strengthen regulations on hate and character-defaming comments and overhaul the entire next news service. "There could be risks in terms of business, but I believe this is the beginning of a way to fulfill social responsibility," Yeo said.
Cyberbullying has been a problem in South Korea's entertainment scene for decades. Some entertainers have committed suicide due to depression aggravated by malicious online comments. Sulli was put under a barrage of hate comments for many years for uploading images that they thought were provocative. She had bravely fought back against cyberbullies, unlike many other artists who kept their mouths shut.
K-pop band BTS, which was plagued by malicious comments, took legal action against cyber bullies last year. In December 2017, Jonghyun, a SHINee member, committed suicide and experts agreed that cyberbullying played a role in his death.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
