Flood of Platform Regulation Bills, Kakao Incident Heads to the National Assembly

Concerns Over Duplicate Regulations Remain... But Outage Incident Sparks Support for Regulation

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] The ruling and opposition parties are competitively proposing bills to prevent KakaoTalk outages. Although there are considerable concerns during the National Assembly discussions about overlapping and double regulations, information leaks, and the contraction of corporate activities, the atmosphere has significantly changed following the data center fire incident.

According to the National Assembly on the 18th, immediately after the Kakao outage incident, Democratic Party lawmakers Jo Seung-rae and Byun Jae-il, and People Power Party lawmaker Choi Seung-jae each consecutively proposed amendments to the Framework Act on Broadcasting and Communications Development and the Information and Communications Network Act.

The amendment to the Framework Act on Broadcasting and Communications Development proposed by Rep. Jo centers on including online services and data centers in the national disaster management system. Rep. Byun added operators and managers of data centers to the subjects required to take protective measures to operate information and communication facilities stably in his amendment to the same law. Under the current law, lessees who rent data centers are not obligated to take protective measures for stable facility operation. The purpose of the amendment is to eliminate this blind spot. Rep. Choi plans to add value-added communication service providers to the major broadcasting and communication service providers included in the broadcasting and communication disaster management basic plan through amendments to the Information and Communications Network Act.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 18th, union members belonging to the National Democratic Taxi Union held an emergency press conference for corporate taxi workers regarding the 'KakaoT communication failure damage' and the government's late-night ride difficulty relief measures at the Service Federation conference room in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

When the bills are submitted and discussions begin, the most sensitive issues from the related industry's perspective are overlapping regulations and the possibility of information leaks. These were also the core reasons the bills stalled in the Legislation and Judiciary Committee two years ago.

However, this time, the counterargument that concerns about overlapping and double regulations are less valid is gaining traction. At that time, the industry argued that the bills overlapped with Article 46 of the Information and Communications Network Act, which stipulates that "protective measures must be taken as prescribed by Presidential Decree to operate information and communication facilities stably." They pointed out that adding this to the Framework Act on Broadcasting and Communications Development when a similar law already exists constitutes overregulation.

Inside and outside the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee, it is viewed that the Information and Communications Network Act focuses on 'preemptive' regulation, whereas the Framework Act on Broadcasting and Communications Development deals with 'post-disaster' regulation, making their natures different. Also, the Information and Communications Network Act focuses more on 'information protection' than service stability. A Democratic Party committee official said, "Double regulation was used as a reason for opposition in the 20th National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, but they confused preemptive regulation with post-disaster recovery and restoration."

Rep. Jo Seung-rae, who is the main proposer of the bill, also explained the bill's purpose on the radio that day, saying, "Establishing a disaster management basic plan means managing situations by preparing for all conditions in emergencies," adding, "It will greatly improve safety management conditions."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Concerns about information leaks are similar. At that time, the industry opposed the bill that strengthened government inspections of private Internet Data Centers (IDCs), arguing it could lead to the leakage of private companies' trade secrets. However, the consensus is that this is not an issue since the government inspects electrical equipment, cooling devices, storage devices, and manuals for accidents at the IDC, not the contents inside the servers.

The ruling party and government will discuss measures to prevent the recurrence of the 'Kakao outage incident' at the National Assembly on the 19th. It is reported that they will discuss amendments to the Framework Act on Broadcasting and Communications Development, including designating IDCs as national disaster management facilities like broadcasting and communication facilities and managing them accordingly.

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