Kakao Introduces 'Recommended Comments' Displaying Comments in Random Order

"Increasing Comment Diversity to Foster a Healthy Public Discourse"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] Kakao is strengthening measures against malicious comments and is also carrying out a service overhaul to increase the diversity of comments.

On the 30th, Kakao announced that it will introduce a 'Recommended Comments' sorting feature that displays comments in a random order based on user feedback on comments in the news comment services of the portal Daum and KakaoTalk #Tab.

The Recommended Comments sorting method shows comments that have received a certain number of approvals among all comments in a random order when comments and feedback (approval/disapproval) occur on the news.

For news articles with a certain number of comments, Recommended Comments will be provided as the default sorting method. Compared to the existing default sorting method, this aims to increase opportunities for users to discover and interact with diverse comments, thereby strengthening the original role of comments.

The existing default sorting method called 'Recommended Order' will be renamed to 'Approval-Disapproval Order' to clarify that it is based on the number of approvals minus the number of disapprovals. For news with fewer comments, only lists sorted by Approval-Disapproval Order, Latest Order, and Oldest Order will be provided.

A 'Report Author Nickname' option will also be added. By selecting 'Report Author Nickname' in the comment reporting menu, users can directly report users who use abnormal nicknames for comment activities, such as profanity or illegal site advertisements. If the reported user's nickname is confirmed to violate Kakao's operational policies, the nickname will be immediately reset, and sanctions will be applied based on the accumulated number of reports.

Yeo Min-soo and Cho Soo-yong, co-CEOs of Kakao, stated, "This second overhaul by Kakao reflects efforts to protect the valuable essence of a healthy public discourse," and added, "We will continue efforts to create a healthy communication ecosystem based on user participation and positive influence."

Earlier, on February 26, Kakao added a 'Discrimination/Hate' category to the comment reporting criteria and introduced functions to manage the exposure of comment areas such as 'Hide' and 'Collapse.' As a result, reports of malicious comments increased, and comments containing profanity and vulgar language decreased by more than 20%.

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