South Korea is cracking down on "rumors" in cyberspace
Oct 5, 7:31 AM EDT
S. KOREA RUMOR CRACKDOWN JOLTS SOCIAL MEDIA USERS
BY YOUKYUNG LEE AP TECHNOLOGY WRITER
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea's president is
cracking down on rumors in cyberspace in a campaign that threatens the
popularity of Kakao Talk, the leading social media service in a country with
ambitions to become a global technology leader.
Prosecutors announced the crackdown two weeks ago after
President Park Geun-hye complained about insults directed at her and said false
rumors "divided the society."
That rattled users of Kakao Talk, a smartphone-based
messaging app used by 35 million of South Korea's 50 million people. It
prompted a surge of interest in a previously little-known German competitor,
Telegram.
Rankey.com, a research firm, said an estimated 610,000
South Korean smartphone users visited Telegram on Wednesday, a 40-fold increase
over Sept. 14, before the crackdown was announced. The company said its
estimate was based on a randomly selected group of 60,000 people it follows
regularly.
On Friday, Telegram was the most downloaded free app in
Apple's App Store in South Korea. On Google Inc.'s store, Telegram was the No.
2 downloaded free communications app, behind only Kakao Talk.
South Korean users left reviews on Telegram saying they
left Kakao Talk to seek "asylum." They asked Telegram to add a Korean
language service.
The uproar threatens to slow adoption of social media or
send South Korean users to foreign services, undercutting government ambitions
to build a high-tech "creative economy."
"It will definitely limit the number of new signups,
as users opt for services which are not subject to monitoring," said Jon
Bradford, a managing director at startup accelerator TechStars in London.
"Any policies that the Korean authorities only impose upon local
businesses will damage their competitiveness both at home and abroad."
South Korea is one of the most wired societies, with 85
percent of its people online and 40 million smartphones. The government has
promised to step up financial support for tech startups.
Kakao Talk's dilemma echoes criticism of U.S. technology
companies following disclosures of widespread government surveillance. Internet
and other companies have struggled to reassure users while saying they are
legally obligated to cooperate with authorities.
This week, China's telephone regulator said it approved
Apple Inc.'s new iPhone 6 for use on Chinese networks after the company
promised never to allow other governments secret "backdoor" access to
users' data. In Germany, the consumer privacy regulator of the major city of
Hamburg told Google it must obtain Germans' permission before using information
about them to create profiles for email and other services.
Park's government has been sensitive about the Web and
social media after it came under criticism following a ferry sinking in April
that killed 300 people, most of them high school students.
Yong Hye-in, a 24-year-old college student, complained
her friends were targeted for unjustified data collection after she was
detained during a protest in May demanding government action over the ferry
disaster. She received a notice that her house and her Kakao Talk account had
been searched with a court's approval.
Yong was alarmed to find investigators obtained personal
information of people she contacted. That included messages, photos and videos
and network addresses.
"It was an indiscriminate collection of data of
people around me," she said. "They should weigh how much (my friends)
were involved in the case."
Jung Jinu, an opposition politician, complained
investigators who looked into his role in a protest over the ferry tragedy
collected messages and phone numbers from his 3,000 contacts on the service. He
said many used Kakao Talk to discuss social, labor and political issues.
"It is no different from eavesdropping," Jung
said.
Kakao Talk, owned by Daum Kakao, an Internet portal and
app developer, denied it gave authorities data of Jung's friends. But the court
warrant that Jung showed said all messages he sent and received between May 1
and June 10 were subject to search.
Park ordered the justice ministry last month to
investigate unfounded stories in cyberspace. At a Cabinet meeting on Sept. 16,
she complained about insults about her and said online rumors have "gone
too far and divided the society," according to the presidential office's
website.
Two days later, prosecutors announced the launch of a
team to monitor online information. They said anyone who posts or passes on
information deemed false will face punishment. They said that for "grave
matters," investigations will begin without waiting for complaints and
offending information will be deleted.
The Seoul prosecutors' office did not respond to repeated
phone calls seeking comment. News reports say authorities will only monitor
public posts on Twitter, Facebook, online forums and Web portals, not private
messages exchanged on online messengers.
Officials at Kakao Talk said authorities cannot look at
users' messages without a court order.
"We are aware of such concerns," the co-CEO of
Daum Kakao, Lee Sirgoo, told reporters on Wednesday.
Lee said the company had "top security
technology" to prevent leaks and only stored messages for a short time.
However, he said, Kakao Talk is "subject to South Korean
law" and "when there is a fair execution of law, we cooperate with
prosecutors" by handing over information.
So far, the potential for users to migrate to Telegram,
which has fewer features such as emoticons, or other messaging providers is
unclear.
Rankey.com's survey showed about 90 percent of users of
devices that run Google's Android, the most popular operating system in South
Korea, visited Kakao Talk every day. Only 2 percent launched the Telegram app
at least once on Wednesday.
Some people say Kakao Talk could protect users by
encrypting their data. But the company said it saves messages for up to five
days in unencrypted form to allow users to copy them onto multiple devices.
Responding to growing surveillance concerns, Kakao Talk
said Thursday it would reduce the storage period to three days.
Yong, the college student, said she has joined Telegram.
She also tries to meet people in person instead of using messengers. But she
said too many people still use Kakao Talk, so she cannot stop using it
completely.
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Lee can be reached on Twitter: www.twitter.com/YKLeeAP
© 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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