By Jun Ji-hye
The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) is pursuing allegations that the government has been monitoring messages exchanged on messenger services, a move seen as an apparent effort to take the initiative in bipartisan negotiations.
From the NPAD’s point of view, the issue, which has become a political hot potato during a National Assembly audit of government offices and ministries, is a good opportunity to turn the tables in its favor after a series of difficulties, including failed efforts to push for a special Sewol bill and internal conflicts that led to falling approval ratings.
The nation’s most popular messenger service Kakao Talk has become the subject of controversy after Jung Jin-woo, a member of the minor opposition Labor Party, said on Oct. 1 that the prosecution recently examined his Kakao Talk conversations and the personal information of 3,000 of his acquaintances registered with the service.
Jung was among those who gathered at a rally to demand an independent investigation into the April Sewol ferry disaster that caused the death of more than 300 passengers, most of them high school students. The approval ratings of the Park Geun-hye government dropped sharply following the man-made tragedy.
The controversy further escalated after the NPAD lawmaker Jung Cheong-rae argued that the government has monitored conversations, not only on Kakao Talk, but also those conducted on the Naver Corp.’s social networking service BAND.
“The Park Geun-hye’s administration’s monitoring of mobile messenger services surpasses the media surveillance even of previous military governments,” said Rep. Woo Yoon-keun, newly elected floor leader of the main opposition party. “The government should abolish its cyber surveillance if it wants to protect the nation’s democracy and the freedom of the people.”
The NPAD believes that the issue could work to its advantage because social network services are mostly utilized by those in the younger generation, a traditional support base of the opposition. The party expects a further uproar to occur because increasing numbers of middle-aged people have also been signing up to the services as well.
Indeed, a considerable number of Kakao Talk users are seeking “cyber asylum” by switching to overseas services such as Telegram hosted in Germany. Domestic IT enterprises are raising concerns that such an exodus could deal a blow to their business.
“It is a very serious problem that the government excessively inspects and monitors civilians,” said Rep. Jun Byung-hun, former floor leader of the NPAD.
The largest opposition party is moving to call the CEO of BAND to appear at the parliamentary audit as a witness to further increase public attention on the issue. Then, the party believes, it could gain momentum to pressure the ruling Saenuri Party to accept what the opposition and the bereaved families demands be included in a special bill designed to investigate the direct and associated causes of the Sewol ferry disaster.
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn denied allegations of government monitoring of public messenger services during an audit of the justice ministry, saying he is also a user of KaKao Talk and that the platform is safe to use.
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