(News Focus) Mobile Internet on smartphones challenging real-name ID law

By Lee Youkyung
SEOUL, March 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's recent decision to exempt Youtube, the
world's most-visited video portal, from the country's controversial real-name
verification law has resparked a debate about the relevance of current Web
regulation amid an increasingly mobile Internet environment, industry sources
here said Friday.
The country's regulator said earlier this week that YouTube -- run by U.S. search
engine giant Google Inc. -- which recently became available to local customers
via many smartphones with a built-in YouTube application, is not compelled to
abide by the domestic Internet law. The law, devised partly to stem defamation on
the Web, requires users to input their full name and ID number before posting a
comment or a video.
"It is difficult to apply the local law to restrict the U.S. YouTube site," Cho
Hae-geun, an official from the Korea Communication Commission (KCC) said by
phone.
The decision, which overturns the regulator's ruling a year ago, is touching off
a debate about the effectiveness of Internet regulations that have changed little
over recent years, while the Web market and the industry are changing rapidly
with the emergence of new Web devices such as smartphones, a mobile handset with
computer-like functions.
"IT companies have long been concerned about the real-name requirement for Web
portals," said Kim Joong-tae, a consultant to IT companies and head of
Seoul-based IT House, a private group collecting data and analysis on the local
IT industry. "It makes it practically impossible for Korean companies to make
services that attract users around the world."
A year ago, when most Web access was performed by desktop or laptop-like
computing devices, the KCC, a government agency that regulates the country's
telecommunications and Internet market, ordered that YouTube Korea identify its
users who upload videos or post comments.
Google at the time dodged the restriction by simply stripping the South
Korea-based accounts of video uploading rights.
At the time, those moves by the South Korean regulator and the U.S. search engine
giant had little impact on Korean users, as they, including the presidential
office Cheong Wa Dae, freely posted videos by opening accounts set outside the
country.
But a growing number of South Korean citizens, unlike a year ago, are accessing
the Web via smartphones, exposing loopholes in the country's unchanged
regulations on the Web, experts said.
Motoroi from Motorola Inc., a Google's Android-based smartphone, for example, was
launched in February with a disabled YouTube uploading function. Apple Inc.'s
iPhone, on the other hand, was made available to local customers without
restrictions on posting videos on YouTube.
Industry watchers said the resulted contradiction points to a larger problem
where the current regulations on the Internet could be a roadblock in the
country's efforts to foster the information technology industry.
"Requiring real-name verification on the Web means local IT companies should make
Web services only for the Koreans," said the IT consultant Kim.
"Chinese, Americans, people from all over the world are joining global service
like Twitter. But making a global service like Twitter or Facebook is virtually
impossible if we require users to verify their real-name," he said.
Others, while acknowledging that the regulation may be effective in curbing
cyber-bullies and attacks made anonymously, echoed such views that those Web
regulation is doing a disservice to the country's IT industry.
"Stemming irresponsible voices may be well-intentioned, but the isolation of the
local Internet environment is discouraging the industry," said another industry
insider who declined to be named. Many fledgling IT companies here also had to
spend money to set up real-name verification processes, an investment that could
be allocated to better places, the source added.
ylee@yna.co.kr
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