By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

Police are investigating three bloggers for allegedly posting online articles criticizing the government and then manipulating the number of hits they got to make their writing appear more widely read.

Officers seized computers from them during raids on their homes and offices in Seoul, and Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, Monday. They are said to have posted articles libeling President Lee Myung-bak or denouncing the government on Daum's online forum Agora before fabricating the hits.

Police are investigating whether they artificially made their writings become ``best articles'' in order to draw Internet users' attention and spread anti-government opinions.

``They are suspected of having raised the hits on their articles by using an illegal computer program. Such a large number of hits is impossible only by clicking mouse buttons,'' a police officer at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said. One of the bloggers posted 20 articles over two weeks last month and made the writings have over one million hits, he said.

Police will summon the bloggers soon. If the suspicion is confirmed, they will be booked for obstructing Daum's business and violating the law governing the use of information networks.

``We will question them over whether they intended to expand anti-government demonstrations,'' the officer said.

Some Internet users are criticizing the police, asking if hit manipulation is a serious crime that should be subject to punishment.

Such manipulation often takes place on online forums and guest boards, and many portals have already dealt with them by suspending manipulators' IDs or their membership.

``There have always been hit manipulations. Why is only this one subject to legal punishment? The authorities now openly arrest people opposing the Lee administration. The country is going back to the dictatorship era,'' blogger Broccoli stated.

Culture critic Jin Jung-gwon said on the New Progressive Party's Web site, ``This country charges people for clicking a lot. They say the fabrication interfered with Daum's business ― I doubt it really did.''

Daum Communications had not requested police to conduct an investigation into business interference.

Some other bloggers, however, said legal actions are needed for such manipulation, saying that there have been articles which had no specific content but recorded an unusually large number of hits.

In the meantime, police are investigating ``professional or habitual ralliers'' who led illegal, violent demonstrations between January and February. They said they identified five people who led protests against police action against former tenants in a Yongsan district in January.

Police said they are members of civic groups and have previous convictions for violating the law of assembly and demonstration, or the National Security Law. Police will summon them soon.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr