Concerns about the resurrection of the real sword… Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism “preparation of bias and unfairness measures”

Plans to introduce Naver ‘keyword recommendation’ service
Countermeasures against fake news TF reviewed from various angles

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 14th that it would prepare multifaceted measures to dispel the controversy over partiality and unfairness surrounding large news portal sites.

The most closely watched issue is Naver’s plan to introduce a ‘keyword recommendation’ service. It is pointed out one after another that it is a revival of the real-time rapidly rising search term service due to the nature of grasping real-time trends. Daum and Naver abolished real-time search term services in 2020 and 2021, respectively, in order to calm controversy such as manipulation of public opinion.

The ‘fake news eradication TF’ organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism reviews countermeasures from various aspects. The core basis is Article 10 of the Newspaper Act. It is stated that ‘news portals should make efforts to ensure that basic policies, such as the arrangement of articles, are faithful to the interests of readers’.

Based on this, the fake news eradication TF is a system for securing algorithmic transparency such as the market dominating influence and social responsibility of large news portals, article arrangement, protecting user rights and interests and remedies for infringement, creating a fair win-win environment between news portals and news providers, and securing diversity of public opinion. discuss improvements. It will also strengthen consultation channels with related ministries such as the Korea Communications Commission and present legal and policy alternatives to create a fair distribution environment for news portals in consultation with the National Assembly and experts.

An official from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said, “We plan to look into social suspicion and criticism that large portals function as platforms for consuming and distributing fake news.” said.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Park Bo-gyun said, “We pay attention to public opinion’s negative gaze and national dissatisfaction that Naver and Daum lack journalism responsibility compared to their influence and ripple effect.” It is common sense that it is valid and necessary for the media and members of the group.” He continued, “I expect that large news portals will strengthen their own countermeasures and improvement efforts against these controversies.”