Paik Seung-ho of Korea, left, kicks the ball during a quarterfinal match against China during the Asian Games at Huanglong Sports Centre Stadium in Hangzhou, China, Sunday. Yonhap
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo ordered, Wednesday, the launch of a government task force to prevent online opinion-rigging attempts.
The directive was triggered by suspicions that China attempted to manipulate online opinion on Daum, Korea's second-largest search engine and internet portal, before and during a football match between Korea and China at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou. The government fears such attempts could also be used to sway voter sentiment during key elections in Korea.
The Office for Government Policy Coordination said Han ordered the establishment of the pan-government task force to be led by the Korea Communication Commission (KCC), with other related government bodies such as the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, to come up with measures to prevent the manipulation of public opinion.
"Fake news is a serious social disaster that shakes the foundation of democracy," Han said in a statement.
He called for the swift establishment of the task force, as well as necessary legislative measures, in order to prevent a possible recurrence of incidents like the so-called "Druking scandal," a major online opinion-rigging incident that occurred here in 2018.
During the men's football quarterfinal match that took place on Sunday, sports fans were able to express their support for either team on Daum's "cheering service" by clicking on the team that they support. Launched in 2015, the feature allows online users to express support in sports matches without having to sign in with a Daum account. There is no limit to the number of times a single online user can show support.
During Sunday's match, at one point, the ratio of cheering clicks for the Chinese team reached 91 percent with some 20 million clicks, compared to a mere 9 percent for the Korean team, which had some 2 million clicks ― raising suspicions here given that Daum is a Korea-based internet portal.
Seen above is the "cheering service" page on Daum which shows the ratio of cheering clicks for the Chinese team reaching 91 percent, compared to a mere 9 percent for the Korean team during the quarterfinal match between the two nations at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, Sunday. Courtesy of Rep. Park Sung-joong's office
The ruling People Power Party (PPP) speculated this to be an example of China’s attempts to manipulate online opinion here, expressing worries that Beijing exploited the function as part of its global online propaganda campaign. The party said on Tuesday that it will propose a bill to prevent potential manipulation by countries online.
The presidential office agreed with the party's stance. A senior presidential official told reporters that "such concerns seem reasonable."
Following those concerns, the KCC on Wednesday announced the probe's results regarding over 30 million cheering clicks that occurred hours before and during Sunday's football match.
The broadcasting watchdog found that unspecified internet users based overseas had generated many comments supporting China by remotely accessing the cheering service through virtual private network (VPN) servers, and also by employing an automated mouse clicking program.
Among the support that appeared on the cheering service, 50 percent was generated from servers in the Netherlands and 30 percent were from Japan, the KCC said.
On the same day, Kakao, which owns Daum, released the results of its own investigation that also found that the number of support clicks for China was inflated via the use of automation programs and VPN servers from a Dutch IP address and a Japanese IP address.
Announcing the results, the firm said it has suspended its cheering service from Monday, adding plans to request a police investigation into the incident.
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