Naver "Deeply Sympathizes with Kakao's 'Principle to Eradicate Hate Speech'"

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Naver has expressed strong agreement with Kakao's 'Principles for Eradicating Hate Speech' and has committed to developing detailed policies to foster a healthy digital environment.

On the 9th, Naver stated through its official blog 'Naver Diary,' "Recently, Kakao announced the 'Principles for Eradicating Hate Speech.' We deeply resonate with the call to establish standards for addressing hate speech and the need for autonomous responses to eradicate it."

Earlier, Kakao established principles to respond to hate speech after the AI chatbot 'Iruda' became a social issue due to hate speech. The core of the principles opposes discrimination or exclusion of specific targets based on identity factors such as country or region of origin, race, appearance, disability, or illness.

Naver is also making efforts, including technical improvements, to foster a healthy internet culture. In April 2019, it became the first portal company to develop and apply its own AI-based 'AI Clean Bot' to filter malicious comments such as profanity and hate speech. Recently, it upgraded the version to strengthen filtering functions against expressions that condone or promote sexual crimes.

These moves by the two companies come as social responsibility is increasingly demanded alongside their rapid growth. Last year, Naver and Kakao recorded their highest-ever annual revenues of 5.0341 trillion KRW and 4.1567 trillion KRW, respectively.

Starting this year, both companies are intensifying their ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management efforts. Last quarter, Naver established an ESG committee under its board of directors, set ESG promotion directions, and established a Carbon Negative goal for 2040. At the end of the year, it published its first Sustainability Management Report detailing major ESG issues and management status. Naver CEO Han Seong-sook said, "We plan to update this annually. To this end, we have formed a dedicated team under the Chief Financial Officer and will lead ESG management by implementing key improvement tasks across various areas, including eco-friendliness."

Kakao co-CEO Yeo Min-soo also announced on the 9th during a conference call that "Kakao defines ESG as 'Kakao's promise and responsibility to create a better world' and has selected four focus areas," revealing plans to strengthen ESG management. The ESG management he described includes ▲solving social problems in Kakao's way ▲growing together with people sharing the IT ecosystem ▲fulfilling corporate responsibility in the digital society ▲creating a sustainable global environment. To concretize ESG management, Kakao is internally pursuing 80 tasks across 12 major practice areas.

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