Kakao Entertainment Blocks 15,000 Illegal Webtoons in Indonesia

Kakao Entertainment's global webtoon illegal distribution response TF team (hereinafter P.CoK team) achieved the result of blocking more than 15,000 illegal contents in Indonesia last year.

The Kakao Entertainment P.CoK team announced on the 20th that during the past year, they manually reported and blocked a total of 15,607 illegal contents in Indonesia, shut down 206 Telegram groups, suspended 13 large illegal translation groups, and closed 32 related donation channels. This achievement was made through the 'Global Illegal Distribution Eradication Campaign' launched in July last year to improve awareness in Indonesia, where 63% of internet users consume illegal content and copyright awareness is low, combined with 'qualitative infringement response' through local business trips and undercover investigations.

Most illegal contents in Indonesia are distributed within closed communities and shared through constantly changing slang, making it difficult to respond using automated tools such as AI. To penetrate encrypted groups and infiltrate closed communities while understanding the context of slang, systematic responses by dedicated personnel for each language group are essential.

Considering this, the P.CoK team undertook a 'qualitative infringement response.' Dedicated team members manually monitored and cracked down on various covert platforms that are difficult to police, such as donation services, chat services, link integration services, illegal sites, Telegram, and Discord. To access highly guarded closed communities, they conducted long-term undercover investigations by posing as regular users.

One of the representative achievements was directly locating Indonesian illegal site operators and users and conducting one-on-one in-depth interviews. The P.CoK team did not remain limited to remote crackdowns from Korea but dispatched personnel directly to Indonesia, further advancing their understanding of the local market and enforcement know-how. Through these efforts, they thoroughly grasped Indonesian copyright awareness and illegal distribution routes, and even took certification photos of declarations to no longer distribute or consume illegal content.

The Kakao Entertainment P.CoK team is systematically continuing illegal site crackdowns not only in Indonesia but also domestically and in English-speaking and Chinese-speaking regions. In the Chinese-speaking region, since the publication of the second white paper, they have achieved rapid results by blocking 70,680 illegal contents in just three months from December last year to the end of February this year.

The third illegal distribution response white paper is scheduled to be shared in the first half of this year.

Ho-Jun Lee, Head of Legal Affairs and TF Leader for Illegal Distribution Response at Kakao Entertainment, stated, “Since the TF team was launched in 2021, we have detected about 9.2 million illegal contents and registered about 7,000 search blocking keywords, achieving remarkable results steadily. This year, in addition to existing response activities, we plan to accelerate our efforts by establishing a more multifaceted approach, including participatory awareness improvement activities targeting global users and building a database of infringement status for evidence in lawsuits against illegal sites.”

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