Park Sung-joong "Lee Hae-jin, who broke his promise, must appear at the audit session" Calls for portal chief's attendance

Park Sung-joong, Member of the People Power Party./Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] "Since Chairman Lee Hae-jin made the statement himself, he should come forward and explain it directly."

On the 6th, a day before the National Assembly audit, Park Sung-joong, the floor leader of the People Power Party in the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee, and others once again urged that the heads of Naver and Kakao appear as witnesses at the audit. This is their second request following a public video message released just before the Chuseok holiday.

Park and other People Power Party members of the National Assembly Science and Technology Committee, including Park Dae-chul, Kim Young-sik, Jung Hee-yong, Jo Myung-hee, Heo Eun-ah, and Hwang Bo-seung-hee, stated in a press release that "the portal heads who do not keep their promises made at the audit must come to the audit and explain directly."

First, they claimed that Lee Hae-jin, Naver's Global Investment Officer (GIO), did not keep his promises when he appeared at the 2017 audit. At that time, Lee GIO stated that ▲news editing functions would be placed externally for public verification, and the News Editing Advisory Committee would undergo external verification ▲news algorithms would be disclosed and managed externally to enhance fairness and objectivity ▲real-time search algorithms would be verified and disclosed externally, but none of these were implemented.

The People Power Party members said, "Responsibility for testimony and promises made at the audit is the primary reason Chairman Lee Hae-jin must appear at the audit," emphasizing, "Since these were his own statements, he must come out and explain directly." They added, "No one else can appear on his behalf," and "It is especially not a matter for executives such as presidents or vice presidents to handle."

Additionally, the lawmakers argued, "Naver and Daum Kakao have over 30 million daily users, making them more influential than all broadcasters, magazines, and other media combined," and "since public opinion can be manipulated if portals are manipulated, they must appear." They expressed concern that "if these giant portals use their dominant position to artificially arrange news and manipulate comments and real-time search terms, they will no longer be platforms for information but platforms for public opinion manipulation, becoming weapons that harm the public."

Furthermore, they stated, "The ruling party's refusal to adopt witnesses from the two major portals appears to be an intention to continue unfair elections through the cartel of the Blue House, ruling party, Naver, and Daum, which has benefited from consecutive elections starting from the last presidential election to local and general elections, and plans to continue this unfairness in upcoming by-elections and presidential elections," urging, "If the Democratic Party does not want to continue allowing portal distortions and enjoy those benefits forever, they must adopt the heads of the two major portals as witnesses."

The People Power Party members said, "The ruling party claims our demands are attacks against them, but this is groundless," emphasizing again that "the reasons for requesting witnesses Chairman Lee Hae-jin of Naver and Chairman Kim Beom-su of Daum Kakao are ▲issues of news arrangement due to the dominant position of large portals ▲fairness of AI algorithms ▲technical solutions to the possibility of comment and real-time search manipulation." They called for "a progressive attitude from the ruling party," adding, "if the ruling party does not change its stance in the audit starting tomorrow, it will be difficult to promise smooth committee operations."

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