South Korea’s biggest Internet portal Naver yesterday suspended its real-time “trending topics” feature ahead of an election this month, after controversy over politicians and their supporters trying to manipulate the results.
Accusations of misinformation and “fake news” have tainted political processes around the world and in South Korea almost every adult citizen owns a smartphone.
Naver said in a statement it had suspended trends temporarily — the first time it had done so — to “prepare for the possibility of an issue that can affect impartiality,” with South Korea holding a legislative election on April 15.
Photo: AFP
The portal and its ilk are highly influential platforms, as almost 80 percent of South Koreans are known to access news via search engines, rather than directly visiting media outlets’ Web sites.
“Trending words on portals have a tremendous impact on South Koreans,” said Shim Mi-seon, a professor at Soon Chun Hyang University’s department of mass communication. “Many will click on the trending words, rather than browsing news Web sites, to learn what’s new. The words also give an idea of what the majority is thinking. Both as individuals and when deciding to vote, it’s hard not to be influenced by it, especially when you don’t have much time.”
When the nation was rocked by an elitism scandal involving then-South Korean minister of justice Cho Kuk last year, Naver was accused by opposition lawmakers of deliberately making some trending words rank higher than others, such as “We support you, Cho Kuk.”
Naver denied the allegations, saying its algorithm was impossible to manipulate.
Aside from the top trending words, Naver’s most-liked comments on news stories have also been used for political gain.
Last year, a provincial governor was jailed for his part in an online opinion-rigging scandal ahead of the 2017 presidential election.
He was found guilty of colluding with a blogger to artificially generate more than 88 million likes and dislikes on comments on news stories, seeking to rig Naver’s algorithms to give more prominence to content favorable to South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
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