"Stop Hate and Insult Comments on Itaewon"... Daum Suspends Comment Service for 5 Days

Daum to Suspend Related News Timetalk Service Until 31st
Naver Sends Official Letter Requesting Comment Cooperation to Media Outlets

Daum has decided to suspend its news comment service for five days ahead of the first anniversary of the Itaewon tragedy on the 29th. Naver has requested cooperation from media outlets that have the authority to enable or disable comment sections.

Daum announced that it will suspend the TimeTalk service related to Itaewon tragedy reports from the 27th to the 31st.

TimeTalk is a service that Daum introduced last June, changing news comments into a real-time communication format. There is a usage time limit of 24 hours after the article is published.

This decision is due to ongoing concerns about secondary harm such as hatred or insults toward the victims even one year after the tragedy. Recently, the Itaewon Tragedy Bereaved Families Association and the Citizens’ Countermeasure Committee requested major portals to close comments on related articles, and Daum accepted this request.

Regarding the 1st anniversary of the Itaewon tragedy, (from left) Naver and Daum posted notices related to comments. [Photo by Naver, Daum portal site notices captured]

On the 25th, Naver sent official letters to media outlets requesting cooperation to minimize wounds and harm that victims and bereaved families might suffer from comments. Since October 2018, Naver News has implemented a comment system where each media outlet directly chooses how to provide comments on their articles, known as the media-specific comment selection system.

Along with this, Naver News posted a notice titled "Please be cautious when writing comments regarding the first anniversary of the Itaewon tragedy (October 29)" on the main screens of each section.

Meanwhile, according to a survey conducted by the Korea Press Foundation at the end of last year, 55.8% of respondents agreed that comments on news and information related to national disasters or accidents like the Itaewon tragedy should be blocked, which was higher than the 44.2% who opposed it.

The area where comments that promote hatred or defame victims related to the tragedy were considered most serious was online video platforms (88.7%). This was followed by ▲social networking services (SNS, 88.0%) ▲portal news sites (86.9%) ▲media company websites (84.3%) ▲messenger services (81.6%) ▲blogs and online communities (79.7%).

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