·A new law allowing steep damages and faster content removal over alleged misinformation is fueling warnings of self-censorship and politically influenced moderation.
·A law taking effect in Korea next week will allow courts to impose damages of up to five times the harm caused by "false and manipulated information" spread online, a measure media experts and civic groups warn could chill free speech and open the door to government-influenced censorship.
·Starting next Tuesday, an amendment to the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection will introduce the punitive damages scheme, alongside a requirement that large online platforms with more than 1 million daily users remove or block flagged content and take measures to prevent its further circulation.
·The amendment, nicknamed the "July 7 Act" after its effective date, was pushed through by the ruling Democratic Party (DP) last December.
·Ahead of the law's implementation, posts titled "How to survive July 7" have been spreading across Korean online communities, advising users to avoid making direct assertions and instead employ hedging language such as "allegedly" or "it was claimed." Similar cautionary posts have also appeared on popular parenting forums.
