Ahn's Internet related campaign pledges receive mixed response
Independent presidential hopeful Ahn Cheol-soo's Internet-related campaign pledges are receiving mixed public responses and fueling controversy ahead of the December poll, election camp insiders said Thursday.
Election camp sources said Ahn's pledge to deal with electronic game addiction has unexpectedly drawn considerable fire, while measures to discontinue the ActiveX framework and replace it with a more up-to-date support system generally received positive responses.
"Positive responses were particularly high among netizens who persistently advocated the discontinuation of ActiveX on social networking sites," a campaign official said.
ActiveX helps define reusable software components in programming language and has become an integral part of the country's Internet culture, despite its limitations. It is non-standard software and has difficulty interacting with different browsers and is not really appropriate for various mobile platforms.
In a list of pledges made earlier in the week, Ahn, who founded AhnLab, the country's largest anti-virus software company, said ActiveX is effectively hindering ease of use for Web site browsing. He said if he is elected president, he will support development of an alternative software that can take the place of ActiveX.
Critics, however, said the software entrepreneur-turned-politician did not give prior notice of this plan, which prevented it from being adequately covered by the media. The pledge could also be a potential conflict of interest as AhnLab has made money supporting ActiveX.
On the game addiction issue, Ahn, who is popular with younger voters that frequently use the Internet and on-line entertainment services, was attacked for sharing the views of conservatives.
Ahn's campaign pledge claimed people who are addicted to games suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) found in illegal drug users, which can cause mental disorders.
"Linking game addiction with illegal drug use has triggered strong criticism, with campaign officials fueling the controversy by initially claiming there was a mistake in the wording, but this was again refuted," an election aide conceded. The election team has since maintained its overall stance on the ADHD issue.
Related to the confusion regarding game addiction and ActiveX, political pundits have said there seems to be a lack of clear coordination on policy-setting among Ahn's aides.
"This lack of coordination has been cited as one reason why Ahn's campaign has come under attack for a lack of real policy," a watcher said. (Yonhap)