Korea Policing the Net. Twist? It’s South Korea

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/world/asia/critics-see-south-korea-internet-curbs-as-censorship.html?pagewanted=all

A government critic who called the president a curse word on his Twitter account found it blocked. An activist whose Twitter posting likened officials to pirates for approving a controversial naval base was accused by the navy of criminal defamation. And a judge who wrote that the president (“His Highness”) was out to “screw” Internet users who challenged his authority was fired in what was widely seen as retaliation.

Such a crackdown on Internet freedom would be notable, but perhaps not surprising, in China, with its army of vigilant online censors. But the avid policing of social media in these cases took place in South Korea, a thriving democracy and one of the world’s most wired societies.

The seeming disconnect is at least partly rooted in South Korea’s struggle to manage the contradictions in eagerly embracing the Web as one way to catch up with the world’s top economies, while clinging to a patriarchal and somewhat puritanical past. In a nation so threatened by Lady Gaga that it barred fans under age 18 from attending a concert, the thought of unlimited opportunities for Internet users to swear in “public,” view illegal pornography and challenge authority has proved profoundly unsettling.

Critics of President Lee Myung-bak’s government agree that its conservative streak is a driver behind the Internet crackdown. But they argue that prohibitions on profanity and other online activities have also become a convenient excuse to silence critics. It is not the first time that the government has been accused of being overzealous; two former presidential aides and other officials are on trial on charges of conducting illegal surveillance of citizens.

Under Mr. Lee’s appointees, regulators more than tripled the number of Internet posts removed or blocked, to over 53,000 last year from 15,000 in 2008, for infractions that include posting pornography, using profanity or supporting North Korea.