Google, Netflix, Meta Platforms, Naver, and Kakao Subject to Service Stability Obligations

Ministry of Science and ICT Designates Mandatory Subjects for 2022 to Ensure Safety

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] This year, five companies including Google, Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), Netflix, Naver, and Kakao have been designated as obligated operators for ensuring the stability of value-added telecommunications services. Content Wave, which was designated last year, has been excluded from this year's list.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 3rd that it designated obligated operators this year under the amended Telecommunications Business Act of December 2020 to ensure the stability of major value-added telecommunications services. Also known as the "Netflix Act," this legislation was established amid growing controversy over global IT companies free-riding on Korean mobile networks. It imposes obligations on value-added telecommunications operators that cause excessive traffic to maintain the quality of telecommunication services. Operators subject to this obligation are those whose average daily users over three months of the previous year (October to December 2020) exceed one million and whose domestic traffic volume accounts for more than 1% of the total domestic traffic.

Operators required to designate a domestic agent for user protection when they have no domestic office (Article 22-8 of the Act) include two companies: Google (agent Transcosmos Korea) and Meta Platforms (Privacy Agent Korea). Netflix performs user protection duties directly through its domestic office, Netflix Services Korea.

The Ministry of Science and ICT notified the companies of the designation results on January 27. After collecting opinions, it plans to finalize the list of obligated operators in February. Additionally, value-added telecommunications operators not designated as obligated operators will be encouraged to comply with the "Guidelines for Ensuring the Stability of Value-Added Telecommunications Services," established in December last year to provide stable services to users. According to the guidelines, companies must strengthen pre-error verification to prevent failures caused by human error and duplicate content storage to enable rapid content recovery. They must also consult with period telecommunication operators regarding securing internet line capacity. Furthermore, obligated operators must specify the timing and content of notifications in case of failures and secure the transmission targets and methods to be considered when providing user data backup measures in preparation for social networking services (SNS) suspension or closure.

Jeong Chang-rim, Director of Telecommunications Policy, stated, "Since the implementation of the value-added telecommunications service stability assurance system, domestic and foreign obligated operators have actively taken measures such as continuous server expansion and enhanced Korean-language guidance to prevent failures and protect users." He added, "This year as well, we will minimize failures through preemptive stability assurance measures by major value-added telecommunications operators and ensure user protection by overseas operators through the domestic agent system."

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