Opposition party seeks nationality disclosure for online commenters

Rep. Jang Dong-hyeok, left, leader of the main opposition People Power Party, speaks during his visit to the construction site for the semiconductor cluster complex in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. Joint Press Corps

Political parties are clashing over whether online platforms should be required to disclose the nationality of commenters, as the issue is emerging as a flashpoint ahead of the June 3 local elections.

Rep. Jang Dong-hyeok, leader of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), has called for the mandatory disclosure of commenters’ nationalities on online platforms, along with restrictions on foreign nationals’ voting rights in local elections, citing concerns over foreign interference in domestic politics.

While similar arguments have previously been raised by individual lawmakers, this marks the first time the conservatives have formally advanced the issue at the party leadership level.

“Public opinion is being distorted by comments from foreign nationals,” Jang wrote on social media on Saturday. “There was even a case in which an X account that posted more than 65,000 comments criticizing the PPP over the past seven years was found to have a login location in China.”

Jang also argued that Korea’s sovereignty is being undermined by the expansion of voting rights for foreign residents, noting that more than 140,000 foreign nationals are now eligible to vote in local elections.

Under the current law, foreign residents who have held permanent residency for more than three years and are registered in the foreign resident registry are allowed to vote in local elections. They are not, however, permitted to vote in presidential or general elections.

Jang cited a recent joint survey by Seoul National University’s Institute for Future Strategy and Hankook Research, in which 64 percent of respondents said they support a system requiring the disclosure of commenters’ nationality on online news articles. Additionally, 69 percent said foreign nationals from countries that do not grant voting rights to Koreans should not be allowed to vote in Korean local elections.

Park Sung-hoon, the PPP’s chief spokesperson, echoed these sentiments. “Concerns are growing that coordinated, overseas-based commenting activities could distort domestic online public opinion ahead of the local elections this June,” he said.

The PPP members’ claims echo rumors among far-right groups that China interfered in Korea’s previous elections — a rationale cited by former President Yoon Suk Yeol for imposing martial law in December 2024. In the 2022 local elections, 126,668 foreign residents had voting rights, with Chinese nationals accounting for 78.9 percent of them. Of that total, only 16,973, or 13.5 percent, actually cast their ballots.

Rep. Jung Chung-rae, leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, listens to remarks by a local district head during the party's on-site Supreme Council meeting in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, Friday. Yonhap

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) strongly criticized the PPP’s stance.

Kim Hyun-jung, the DPK’s floor spokesperson, questioned the timing and intent behind the claims.

“Why does the PPP bring this up at this particular moment?” Kim said. “Isn’t this a cowardly attempt to evade reality by blaming its plunging approval ratings on so-called external interference?”

Kim argued that the PPP has repeatedly turned to anti-China rhetoric whenever public opinion runs counter to its far-right positions. He added that even after Jang’s recent apology over the Yoon-led insurrection issue, the party has failed to recover in approval ratings, which is why it is once again promoting conspiracy theories targeting China.

He added that the main opposition party should “stop riding far-right logic to escape reality.”

Kim Ji-ho, another DPK spokesperson, warned that political offensives that inflame anti-Chinese sentiment do little to serve Korea’s national interests or diplomatic relations.

Proposals to mandate nationality disclosure for online commenters are not new.

In 2024, PPP Rep. Na Kyung-won introduced legislation requiring online platforms to display commenters’ nationality and location-based access data. A similar bill was proposed in 2023 by PPP Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon to require information service providers to indicate users’ country or nationality and whether proxy connections were used.

Yet, opponents have raised concerns about the feasibility of such measures, noting that determining a user’s nationality based solely on access location is technically unreliable, as connection locations do not necessarily reflect citizenship.