By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Whenever a social debate breaks out, NHN, the operator of the country's most popular search engine, Naver, is bombarded with questions about whether it seeks an active role in the shaping of public opinion. Now, the company's chief executive Choi Hwi-young seems to have had enough.
In a news conference in Seoul Tuesday, Choi revealed plans to change the news section on the Internet site's main page, which previously had employees pick and place news stories under their own editorial judgment.
The revamped site, which is expected to be introduced sometime during next year, will instead provide direct links to the Internet pages of newspapers, television broadcasters and other media outlets providing content to Naver.
The search engine's subscribers will be allowed to customize their list of news sources that will be saved when they log-on to the main page, Choi said. However, the company plans to retain its news page, a separate section linked to the main page, and news search services.
``It was a problem that we selected and published news articles on sensitive social issues under our own judgment when we weren't the ones who searched and wrote the stories,'' said Choi.
``We don't have a finished plan yet, as we are still talking with media outlets over the shaping of the main page's news box and what to do with sections like our `most read stories' list,'' he said.
Choi's announcement comes at a time when Naver has been suffering a public backlash over suspicions that it banned certain keywords and manipulated its list of popular search words after the debate erupted over the Korean government's plans to lift its import ban on U.S. beef products.
The conspiracy theory got new life when it was revealed that Naver had ``afreeca'' on its list of banned search words. Afreeca.com is an Internet site that became popular after it broadcast the candlelit vigils by demonstrators protesting the resumption of beef imports.
Naver had denied the claims, saying that it put afreeca.com on its banned word list in 2006 after the site was swarmed by illegal content providers spraying advertisements for pornographic videos.
Not that Naver got a break from the conservatives either. The Federation of Korean Industries sent an official letter to Naver and other popular portal sites such as Daum and Nate earlier this month demanding that they prevent their users from pushing a campaign pressuring companies not to provide advertisements to the conservative Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo newspapers.
Naver was also criticized during the presidential elections last year when it banned its users from writing posts criticizing or supporting a particular candidate, although the company claimed it merely didn't want to risk violating the Election Law.