Measures to prevent the distribution of illegal content on online communities, social networking services (SNS), and portals have been expanded to include images as well as videos. Starting July 1, users uploading photos will undergo a new procedure that compares their submissions against a database of illegal content before posting, leading to concerns among users about potential pre-censorship by AI.
The Korea Communications Commission announced that, effective immediately, the technical and managerial measures mandated by the Telecommunications Business Act to prevent the distribution of illegal content will now apply to image files in addition to video files. Consequently, about 80 companies, including Google, Meta, X, Naver, and Kakao, are required to implement measures to compare and identify user-uploaded videos or images to restrict postings that may contain illegal content.
This initiative aligns with the amendments to the Telecommunications Business Act, commonly referred to as the Nth Room Prevention Act. Following the 2020 Nth Room incident, the obligations for platform operators to implement technical and managerial measures to combat the distribution of digital sexual crimes were strengthened, expanding the preemptive blocking measures that previously focused primarily on video files to now include images.
The regulations apply to online businesses of a certain size, specifically those with annual revenues exceeding 1 billion won (approximately $800,000) or an average daily user base of over 100,000. When users upload images, they will undergo AI-based filtering or comparison procedures before being posted.
The Korea Communications Commission clarified that these measures do not constitute an invasion of privacy or pre-censorship. The process does not involve human review of user images; instead, it automatically compares the digital characteristics, or 'digital DNA,' of uploaded files against those already registered as illegal content.
However, user concerns remain significant. Comments on community platforms include worries that their photos will be inspected before posting, calls for transparency in the criteria and methods used, and fears that legitimate posts could be blocked due to false positives. While the rationale for the measures is to prevent digital sexual crimes, users experience it as a form of 'pre-upload filtering.'
There is also controversy regarding the burden on businesses. Online communities and SNS operators of a certain size must establish systems to compare uploaded images against databases of illegal content.
For smaller platforms, the technical and financial demands could be overwhelming. Larger platforms that have already developed their detection systems may manage the requirements more easily, but smaller operators will face costs related to implementing external filtering solutions or expanding server capacity.
The Korea Communications Commission plans to operate a six-month grace period until the end of the year to facilitate the implementation of these regulations. They emphasized that this is not a sudden imposition of new obligations but rather an expansion of existing measures following the completion of national technology development for image comparison and identification in December of last year.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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