Gwanak-gu Deletes Movement Paths of COVID-19 Confirmed Cases

668 Posts Related to Confirmed Cases Deleted from Old Website, Blog, Portal Sites... Continuous Requests for Internet Article Removal... Leading the Realization of Confirmed Cases' 'Right to Be Forgotten'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Junhee) is deleting information about confirmed COVID-19 cases from the internet after 14 days have passed since their last contact with a close contact to prevent stigma related to COVID-19.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the district has promptly disclosed the status of confirmed cases and their movement routes on the district website, blog, and other platforms. However, since March 25, all information related to confirmed cases for whom 14 days have passed since their last contact with a close contact has been deleted.

A district official stated, “Continuing to disclose information about confirmed cases after the incubation period of contacts has passed is no longer effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19. Moreover, it can cause secondary damage such as invasion of privacy of confirmed cases and business losses for establishments they visited.”

This measure is also included in the “Guidelines for Disclosure of Information on Confirmed Patients’ Movement Routes (2nd Edition)” announced by the Central Disease Control Headquarters on April 12. The guidelines specify that the disclosure period for confirmed patients’ movement routes is “up to 14 days (COVID-19 incubation period) from the last contact with a confirmed patient.”

From March 25 to June 1, Gwanak-gu has deleted 306 out of 364 posts related to COVID-19 confirmed cases and their movement routes.

Additionally, the district identified 1,179 articles related to confirmed cases and their movement routes exposed on portal sites such as Naver and Daum, and requested 103 media outlets and portal sites to delete these articles, resulting in 362 articles being deleted so far.

The district plans to continue actively searching for existing internet articles related to confirmed cases that have not yet been deleted and will persistently request the relevant media outlets or portal sites to remove them, leading efforts to realize the “right to be forgotten” for COVID-19 confirmed patients.

Mayor Park Junhee said, “Confirmed COVID-19 patients who have endured difficult times should not be hurt twice by stigma. Although it may take some time to delete internet articles exposed on portal sites, we will cooperate with related organizations and explore various methods to ensure that information related to confirmed cases does not remain online, strengthening information quarantine.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.