More and more Korean netizens are "fleeing to foreign internet services", in response to tighter net censorship recently being implemented by the Korean government, Korean newspaper Hankyeoreh reports.
Under a new law, Korean internet users have to submit their real name and residence registration number (similar to social security number in the States) for ID verification, in order to use any major web service (more speficically defined as sites that have daily average viewership of over 100,000.) The law was initially proposed by the previous administration to prevent bad side effects of the internet's anonymity. Under the new law, people can still use their virtual IDs to express themselves, but if service providers are asked by the authority to reveal the real-world profile data of a particular virtual ID, they are legally required to submit such data. Hence the perceived deterioration of freedom of speech -- It's not easy to speak your heart out when you know the government might one day ask around who you are.
Despite increasing number of incidents that show how the anonymity of the internet can sometimes lead to horrible results, such as the recent "Craigslist murder", the US government is yet to mandate real ID verification or similar public policy to the internet service providers. In general, majority of Korean internet users are against tighter censorship around the internet, as exemplified in this recent survey. After a TV show "100 Minute Debate" on MBC, 83% of people said Youtube was right in its move to not follow the real name verification requirement.
Most of Korean netizens are using Korean local services, mostly big portals such as Naver and Daum, for their daily online activities. But "Cyber Exiles" are so worried about submitting their real-world information to use Korean web services that they are starting anew at foreign web services such as Google's Gmail, Hankyeoreh says. I don't think majority of Koreans will suddenly ditch all the archive of data they have accumulated all these years and flock to foreign services en masse anytime soon. But on the other hand, switching cost in the internet world is notoriously low, the government should carefully note.
