By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
South Korea's Internet pundits are moving to blog services offered by foreign companies as local entities lie embroiled in debates that they are vulnerable to government control.
Park Dae-sung, better known by his pen name ``Minerva,'' is considering Textcube of Google, the world's biggest search engine, as his cyberspace asylum.
Before he was apprehended earlier this year on charges of spreading rumors, Park uploaded his write-ups, mostly economic analyses and forecasts, to homegrown outfit Daum Communications.
``I don't think that I will be able to keep using Daum since I experienced problems due to writing uploaded to the Web site,'' Park told The Korea Times.
``I am talking with some blog service providers including Google. After wrapping up the talks, I plan to start uploading my work in the not-so-distant future,'' he said.
Park was arrested in January on suspicion of generating rumors that the government forced banks to stop buying dollars last December, thus allegedly causing volatility in foreign exchange rates.
The 31-year-old self-taught economics guru was acquitted in April, but his legal battle will continue for some time since the prosecution appealed the decision.
Professor Jin Joong-kwon of ChungAng University initiated the exodus to the cyber asylum as he shifted from Daum to Blogspot, a Google service whose servers are located in the United States.
After Jin was accused of defaming a conservative political commentator, Daum suspended several of the articles in question. Then the Internet gladiator announced he would leave Daum earlier this month.
``The measures of domestic portal sites are tantamount to control. After moving my blog to Google, I am mulling over changing my e-mail account to that of Google too,'' Jin told a Korean Internet news site.
``If the government continues to suppress the Internet world, users will find an escape to another network."
Woo Suk-hoon, a lecturer at Yonsei University and author of the bestseller ``880,000 Won Generation,'' left Korean blogging service Tistory, also offered by Daum, for Google this month.
``I grow weary of the possibility that Korean blogging sites will kill my write-ups down the road. That's the reason why I moved to Google,'' Woo said.
Unlike Korean portal sites, Google hardly scraps write-ups of its users unless it obviously violates relevant laws or infringes copyright.
In this climate, experts worried that the exodus of Korean Internet analysts might weaken the country's blogosphere.
``The blogosphere is where participants come up with innovative ideas, fresh recommendations or alternative policies. It is a productive tool for the country,'' said a Seoul analyst who asked not to be named.
``Some say that there are no national boundaries in the blogosphere, but indeed there are. I am concerned the self-exiled experts might not care about Korean things anymore and won't create any new ideas for the country,'' he said.
voc200@koreatimes.co.kr
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[단독] 르노삼성, 본사 모델로 한국 공략
