Kakao "Increase in Malicious Comment Reports After Strengthening News Comment Sanctions"

March Comment Reports Doubled... 14% Increase Continued in May

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] Kakao announced on the 18th that after strengthening the regulation of comments on its news service, reports of malicious comments have increased, while abusive and hateful expressions have decreased.

On February 26, Kakao added a 'discrimination and hate' category to the comment reporting criteria on the news comment services of the portal Daum and KakaoTalk #Tab, and introduced new functions to manage the exposure of comment areas such as 'Cover Up' and 'Collapse'. According to the results compiled after the revision, the number of comment reports in March increased about twofold compared to before the revision, and even in May, after the 21st National Assembly election, it rose by 14% compared to before the revision.

As the number of reports increased, the number of deleted malicious comments also rose by 65% in March compared to before the revision, and by 7% in May. Kakao analyzed that the reduction of comments causing discomfort, even if they did not contain abusive or vulgar language, is a sign that the comment environment is becoming cleaner through users' voluntary participation and positive influence. There was also an effect of more than a 20% decrease in comments containing abusive or vulgar language. Kakao operates an artificial intelligence (AI)-based 'Abusive Language Note Replacement Function' that filters abusive and vulgar words in comments and replaces them with musical note symbols, and after the comment system revision, comments replaced with musical notes decreased by more than 20%.

Among the newly introduced functions through the revision, the 'Cover Up' function, which hides comments users do not want to see in the future, was the most used. This was followed by the 'Collapse' function, which manages the exposure of the comment area itself, and the 'Hide This User's Comment Activity' function, which hides comments from specific commenters. Kakao co-CEOs Young-min Yeo and Soo-yong Cho said, "Through this revision, we discovered the possibility of creating a better communication ecosystem through the good intentions of platform operators and users," adding, "We will fulfill the company's digital responsibility (CDR) through continuous efforts and service improvements."

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