South Korea's amended Network Act, the 'Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection Act', formally took effect on July 7, bringing punitive damages for the deliberate online spread of false or fabricated information.
Under the revised law, anyone who intentionally circulates such content and causes harm to another person faces civil liability. For information distributors who meet a size threshold, defined as having at least 100,000 subscribers or averaging 100,000 monthly views over three months, a court may award up to five times the actual damages. A separate provision allows the Korea Communications Commission to levy fines of up to 1 billion won on those who repeatedly circulate content already confirmed as illegal or fabricated by a court. Large platforms, including local services and international ones such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, must establish their own reporting and removal procedures and publish transparency reports.
The People Power Party (PPP), South Korea's main conservative opposition, staged a pointed piece of theatre in response. Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk and other senior figures arrived at the party's supreme council meeting in black masks, which Jang said were worn to signal protest against a law he called a 'gag law'. He warned that the legislation would silence criticism of President Lee Jae-myung and compared the atmosphere to Hong Kong's press crackdowns. Floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik announced plans to file a constitutional challenge and to introduce a revised bill stripping what he described as 'toxic clauses'. The PPP also noted that a National Assembly petition calling for the law's withdrawal gathered more than 140,000 signatures within a month, clearing the threshold for committee referral.
The ruling Democratic Party rejected those characterisations. Spokesperson Park Gyeong-mi argued the law targets only malicious fabricators profiting from false content, not ordinary critics. Spokesperson Kim Seong-hoe said application requires three conditions to be met simultaneously: malicious intent, improper gain, and clear harm, and that private messages such as KakaoTalk chats fall outside its scope. Broadcast regulator chief Kim Jong-cheol called the 'gag law' label 'excessive political agitation'.
Critics across the political spectrum, including some press and civil-society groups, have warned that platforms may over-delete to limit legal exposure, and that 'report-bombing' by organised users could weaponise the mechanism. The government maintains that ordinary opinion and political criticism are not regulated, and that final judgments on whether content is false rest with the courts, not the state.