Is Platform Blaming Preventing KakaoTalk Outages?... Expensive Lessons Yet Ineffective Measures

Political Sphere Focuses Only on Platform Regulations Far from Disaster
"Private Operators Treated the Same as National Infrastructure Operators," Criticism Arises

Joo Ho-young, floor leader of the People Power Party, is delivering opening remarks at the 'Party-Government Council on the Kakao Data Center Fire' held at the National Assembly on the 19th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Choi] Following the Kakao outage incident, a flood of platform regulation bills are emerging. However, most of these measures are disconnected from the core issue caused by inadequate disaster preparedness, leading to criticisms of ineffectiveness. Experts agree that since a costly lesson has been learned from this incident, rather than targeting platforms indiscriminately, pinpointed policies focusing on the root causes are necessary.

The National Assembly Launches Platform Crackdown While Trying to Prevent Kakao Outage Incidents

According to the IT industry and the National Assembly on the 21st, regulatory proposals aimed at preventing incidents like the Kakao outage are gaining momentum. Just this week, four bills were submitted, including amendments to the Framework Act on Telecommunications and Broadcasting to mandate data redundancy for value-added communication service providers such as Kakao and Naver, and to require disaster management basic plans similar to those for telecom and broadcasting companies, as well as amendments to the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection.

Additionally, the Online Platform Fairness Act (Onple Act) and anti-monopoly legislation are also gaining traction. While the opposition party is stoking the fire, on the 20th, organizations such as the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, Korea Consumer Federation, and the National Democratic Taxi Workers' Union held an emergency roundtable urging legislation to prevent platform monopolies, including the Onple Act. The Onple Act regulates platform operators from forcing purchases or interfering in the management of tenant businesses.

Industry insiders and experts agree on the need for measures to prevent incidents like the Kakao outage but express concerns about the direction of these measures. The regulatory proposals are veering into indiscriminate platform crackdowns that diverge from the core issue of the incident. They argue that trying to solve problems caused by Kakao's negligence in establishing its own disaster recovery system through laws like the Onple Act is illogical.

An industry official said, "Because public sentiment toward the Kakao incident is negative, regulations targeting platforms are being proposed, which in other words means regulating services that people have comfortably used. If the logic is simply that platforms have grown and therefore must be regulated, it will only cause other side effects."

All Bills That Failed Due to Double Regulation and Reverse Discrimination Are Being Reintroduced

There are also strong concerns about the so-called KakaoTalk outage prevention law, including amendments to the Framework Act on Telecommunications and Broadcasting. This is because the same issues remain as when the bill was shelved two years ago due to controversies over double regulation and reverse discrimination.

First, the KakaoTalk outage prevention law overlaps with existing regulations, violating the prohibition against excessive legislation. According to amendments to the Telecommunications Business Act, value-added communication service providers with an average daily user count exceeding one million and a domestic traffic share over 1% are obligated to maintain service quality. Additionally, under the Information and Communications Network Act, they must install and operate facilities capable of backing up and storing key data. The issue of reverse discrimination against global companies remains. Even if the KakaoTalk outage prevention law is enacted, there is no way to enforce it on foreign companies like Google and Netflix that do not have main data centers in Korea.

Choi Sung-jin, CEO of Korea Startup Forum, said, "People say it was a mistake not to push the bill through two years ago, but it was discarded for reasonable reasons. Including platforms in laws that regulate telecom and broadcasting companies, which receive government frequency allocations, does not fit the legal framework and only causes side effects."

Experts unanimously agree that pinpoint regulations addressing the root causes are necessary. Since the public has paid a high price with widespread inconvenience and damage, proper solutions must be presented.

Professor Kim Ji-in of Konkuk University's Department of Computer Engineering said, "It is a serious problem to regulate private businesses like national infrastructure industries just because their influence has grown. We need to focus on and devise solutions for the failure to implement sufficient data redundancy measures." Professor Kim Myung-joo of Seoul Women's University's Department of Information Security also emphasized, "We should improve the skills of students who are poor at math, not generalize value-added communication service providers and punish them like with a cane. Existing systems such as information security management system certification should be activated first."

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