South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak signaled his government would be watching the Net more closely.

Web-fuelled demonstrations over beef imports from the U.S. have underlined the influence the Net has in what might be the world’s most wired nation.

The AFP covered President Lee Myung-Bak’s speech where he spoke of the web’s benefits and dangers at a meeting on the Internet economy.

He cited the need for the Web to be a “space of trust”. “Otherwise, the force of the Internet could turn out to be venomous rather than beneficial,” Lee said. He also made references to spam mail, ’spread of falsehoods and inaccurate information’ but delicately refusing to address directly the protests against his move on allowing U.S. beef back in S.Korea.

Though Lee has denied any intent by the government to censor cyberspace, the Korea Communications Commission said it be working on its identity verification system. The system was put into place to protect users agains cyber bullies; portals would now be obliged to reveal their identities to allow victims to pursue direct legal action.

Kim Young-Joo, a Commission official, said that cyber bullying and malicious online messages needed policing. But excessive regulations? Not on the cards.

“The Internet is a place for free and open debate. Excessive regulations are feared to restrict freedom of expression,” she said to the AFP.

If Korea was to mandate stricter policing of the Internet, it would be likely following the footsteps of its other Asian counterparts. Singapore is known for hauling bloggers to court for broad racial slurs, and is now in the process of pursuing action against a U.S. based former citizen. The charges? That he insulted Singapore judges.

Malaysia has also recently arrested socio-political blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin on charges of sedition and violating the country’s Official Secrets Act.

As governments discover the Internet’s ability to help sway public opinion, will there be more clampdowns or instead, work spent to harness it? If the current trends continue, the former will more likely be the case. 

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Entry was posted on Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 at 2:52 pm under Blogosphere, Security.

Read more entries by Erna Mahyuni.
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