Assemblyman Park Wan-joo: "This Year, Illegal Weapons Information Correction Actions Surge... Half on YouTube"

Strengthen Management and Supervision of Illegal Weapon Information Distribution Targeting Overseas Operators and Illegal Sites

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-sun] The number of corrective actions related to the provision of illegal weapons information by the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) has surged sharply this year.

According to the "Status of Corrective Actions on Illegal Weapons Information from 2019 to 2022" submitted to National Assembly Science, Technology, Information and Communications Committee member Park Wan-joo by the KCSC on the 6th, the number of corrective actions related to illegal weapons information increased from 744 cases last year to 4,796 cases as of September this year. This represents a 544% increase compared to last year. The number of corrective actions related to illegal weapons has been rising annually, with 292 cases in 2019, 416 cases in 2020, and 744 cases in 2021.

The KCSC monitors and takes corrective actions against illegal information that threatens public safety, including illegal food and pharmaceuticals, narcotics, document forgery, social disorder, other legal violations, and the National Security Act. Currently, it collaborates with five major platforms?Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter?to prevent the distribution of illegal information from overseas.

This year, the number of corrective actions on illegal weapons by major overseas operators was zero for Naver, Google, and Instagram; one for Kakao and Twitter; and three for Facebook. However, YouTube had 2,165 pieces of content subjected to corrective action. Additionally, a total of 2,626 cases of illegal weapons information were corrected on other overseas operators and illegal sites.

Following reports that the gun used in the shooting of former Japanese Prime Minister Abe was a homemade firearm, the National Police Agency conducted intensive crackdowns on methods of manufacturing firearms shared on the internet to prevent copycat crimes, resulting in a significant increase in review requests, explained the KCSC.

Assemblyman Park stated, "Illegal information that can be distributed anytime and anywhere must not threaten public safety," adding, "Since illegal firearms content is easily created and distributed on accessible platforms like YouTube, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation with overseas operators and intensify crackdowns." He further emphasized, "It is necessary to strengthen monitoring of illegal weapons information not only on the five major platforms currently monitored but also on illegal sites and other overseas operators."

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