Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Internet real name system debated

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women

Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 11: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 12: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 13: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1

Part 14: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 15: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 16: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 17: 'Regret' over t
he scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 18: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 19: "Unfit foreign instructo
rs should be a 'social issue'"
Part 20: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 21: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 22: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 23: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 24: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 25: Don't Imagine
Part 26: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 27: Art From Outsider's Point of View
Part 28: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges
Part 29: Internet real name system debated

On January 24, My Daily (who else?) reported on the evolving debate over a real name system for netizens, a topic which continues from the discussion in this article published five days earlier. It begins:
Netizens in heated debate over real name system controversy

As the mass distribution of such things as the Celebrity X-File is being seen as an opportunity to introduce a netizen real name system, debate for or against it among netizens is heating up.

As negative opinion has been formed due to things like the spread of the Celebrity X-File, the battle over writing at the foreign instructor denigration site, and some netizens' personal terror, in regard to those who have brought up the netizen real name system, controversy is growing, as those opposing it are saying, "This is just trying to reduce freedom of expression," while those who favor the adoption of the real name system say "You should be responsible for what you write."
It goes on to note that this was not just an internet discussion, with CBS radio "develop[ing] a platform to discuss the netizen real name system" earlier that day by interviewing a lawyer who said that "Because the internet is after all based on anonymity, a possible consequence is that faceless terror is possible and incorrect information can be blindly accepted." It goes on note pro and con opinions summarized above and then ends with quotes from experts saying "In truth, there are many difficulties in introducing a netizen real name system" and "More desirable than laws and systems would be for education regarding netizen etiquette when using the internet to be systematically carried out at school and at home."

As it turns out, there weren't as many problems as one might have thought in implementing this system, though it was done slowly. Here is a summary of the way in which the system was first suggested and implemented, written as Google was about to adopt the system for Youtube in 2009. After the dog poop girl incident in June of 2005, the debate was brought back to life, as noted in these posts from the time:

Internet Witchhunts and Conflict Resolution
Riding the wave of 'cyber terror' articles
'Real Names' in Korean Cyberspace
Portals and the Cyber Terror blame game

Google would later decide not to implement the system, apparently enraging a certain future Seoul mayoral candidate. At the end of last year, it was suggested that the real name system may be scrapped, but as far as I know little has been done in that regard.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I think real name system must be introduced. Some people post abusive comments or spread false rumors in cyberspace. Real name system can hinder netizens from doing that. Especially in Korea, this is a really serious problem causing innocent people to commit suicide or get mental disability due to excessive stress. For example, a female singer named Uni killed herself because of abusive comments about her on the internet. This is an example among many other similar cases. Seeing from it, we can tell that serious problems caused by anonymous posts are not a rare thing in Korea. Thus, I assert that real name system is essential and must be introduced.