People Power Party Lawmakers Meet Han Seong-sook, Say "Lee Hae-jin Must Attend National Assembly Audit"

Naver Mentions Possibility of Disclosing Search Algorithm to Expert Group

Han Seong-sook, CEO of Naver, is giving an opening remark at a meeting with members of the People Power Party who visited Naver headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province on the morning of the 14th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] Members of the People Power Party met with Han Seong-sook, CEO of Naver, to raise concerns about bias in the search algorithm and reiterated their demand for Lee Hae-jin, Global Investment Officer (GIO), to appear at the National Assembly audit. Naver expressed willingness to disclose the search algorithm to a trustworthy expert group.

On the 14th, People Power Party lawmakers met with CEO Han at Naver headquarters in Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Province, to request Lee GIO’s attendance at the audit. Attendees included National Assembly members Seong Il-jong, Kang Min-guk, Yoo Ui-dong, Yoon Doo-hyun, Yoon Jae-ok, Yoon Chang-hyun, and Lee Young from the Political Affairs Committee, as well as Kim Young-sik, Jeong Hee-yong, and Heo Eun-ah from the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee.

From Naver’s side, CEO Han was joined by Vice President Chae Seon-joo, Service Operations Head Yoo Bong-seok, Legal Director Jeong Yeon-ah, External Affairs Director Won Yoon-sik, and Public Relations Director Han Jae-hyun.

Lawmaker Seong stated in his opening remarks, “During the audit period, the Fair Trade Commission imposed fines on Naver, raising various questions about the AI search algorithm. While AI can bring great benefits to humans, it can also cause harm, so we visited to conduct an on-site inspection to see if these aspects are fair.” He added, “If Naver feels unfair or has any necessary matters during its operations, please let us know.”

In response, CEO Han said, “I will share all thoughts on the parts that raise questions.” After the opening remarks, the Q&A session between both sides was held privately.

At this meeting, People Power Party lawmakers demanded Lee GIO’s attendance at the audit, but CEO Han reportedly did not express a position on this. Lawmaker Yoon Jae-ok said, “Given the need for responsible positions on various matters, we emphasized the necessity of Lee GIO’s appearance before the National Assembly,” adding, “We discussed ways to strengthen fairness and ethics in Naver News and Shopping and expressed the intention to establish an expert group within the National Assembly to respond.”

Naver reportedly expressed willingness to disclose the search algorithm to the expert group. Lawmaker Yoon Doo-hyun said, “We received a statement from Naver that the search algorithm can be disclosed to a trustworthy expert group and that they will continuously maintain its reliability.”

Additionally, Naver acknowledged and apologized for errors related to Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae’s search issues. Regarding the controversy over messages related to Kakao involving Democratic Party lawmaker Yoon Young-chan, Naver reportedly made no special remarks, only stating that “there are concerns as he is a former Naver executive.”

Earlier, on the 8th of last month, a controversy over news editing bias arose when messages exchanged between lawmaker Yoon, a former Naver vice president, and his aides were captured by press photographers. At the time, lawmaker Yoon sent messages to his aides criticizing the news editing on the portal Daum, saying, “Strongly protest to Kakao,” and “Tell them to come in.” In response, People Power Party lawmakers issued a statement saying, “This incident revealed why the Blue House sent lawmaker Yoon to the National Assembly,” criticizing, “Rumors have been widespread that the Blue House and the ruling party controlled the portals, and this incident has exposed the issue.”

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