Kindergarten students aboard an urban train in Daegu urge voters on April 21 to cast their votes at the upcoming June 3 local elections Yonhap
With Korea’s local elections just weeks away, campaign rhetoric is reaching a peak. Alongside it, another force is surging just as quickly: fake news. False claims, manipulated images and artificial intelligence (AI)-generated deepfakes are spreading across social media at a remarkable speed, blurring the line between reality and fabrication. What was once a problem of rumor has evolved into something far more sophisticated and difficult to detect.
The problem of misinformation and disinformation has become probably the most serious threat to the health of modern democracies across the world. Especially during elections, a toxic mix of false narratives and AI-generated deepfakes can seriously undermine the integrity of elections. Fabricated videos or audios that depict candidates saying or doing things that never happened can influence votes. They are engineered to spark outrage and spread propaganda, circulating faster than the speed with which fact-checkers can respond. They erode shared reality and harden partisan divides. They are a threat that may put the very legitimacy of democratic institutions at risk.
Governments around the world are grappling with how to respond, and their approaches reflect distinct political cultures and legal traditions. In particular, I find Korea’s measures quite proactive, stringent and one of a kind among other democracies. Under the revised Korean election law, those who create or distribute deepfakes for political campaigns during the election season are punishable with up to seven years in jail or a fine of up to 50 million won. This is on top of the more general Information and Communications Network Act the government passed earlier this year that allows courts to impose punitive damages of up to five times the assessed losses on content creators and media outlets found to have produced and disseminated false information.
Korea’s approach stands in contrast to that of the United States, where no comprehensive federal regime targeting fake news exists. In a country where freedom of expression is a sacred value, regulating speech and media content, even if they are misleading, is often unwelcome and controversial. U.S. President Donald Trump himself frequently disseminates distorted information, most recently posting an AI-generated image depicting himself as Jesus. Responses tend to be fragmented in the U.S., relying on a patchwork of state laws and voluntary measures by technology platforms, such as labeling AI-generated content.
Korean laws and regulations are also a step above those of the European Union, which has traditionally maintained a systematic framework against fake news. The EU treats misinformation and deepfakes as systemic risks to democracy, and, as such, employs comprehensive legal measures. But many of them are preventive in nature and focus on fines and compliance, and that the implementation varies by member states. Korea, in contrast, seems to go directly after the creators or distributors of fake news with heavy criminal penalties, implementing measures with sharper legal teeth.
However, it is hard to pinpoint which measures are better suited to handle the problem of fake news in such a complicated digital environment. While Korea apparently has the strictest regulatory framework, the problem of fake news is insidious. Can Korea’s measures effectively curb fake news that spreads globally and instantaneously, often originating from outside national borders? And who ultimately decides what qualifies as “false” information in a complex and fast-moving media environment?
These concerns point to a deeper dilemma. Efforts to combat fake news are essential, yet they carry inherent risks. Laws that are too broad or aggressively enforced may inadvertently suppress legitimate forms of expression, including satire, parody and critical commentary. The line between harmful deception and protected speech is not always clear, and missteps could undermine the very democratic values such regulations aim to protect.
The issue of fake news is too important to ignore. Maintaining a clean informational environment and trust in the political systems, especially during elections — the cornerstone of modern democracy — is essential. I believe this is why Korea came up with strong anti-fake news measures. Whether the Korean model proves effective remains to be seen, however. It may offer a glimpse of a more assertive regulatory future, or it may reveal the limits of law in an age of rapidly evolving technology.
From K-pop to K-beauty and to K-quarantine (during the COVID-19 pandemic) and K-defense (celebrated military technologies and defense system), the country has been at the vanguard on many fronts. How would itsnew regulations fare against the treacherous fake news problem? Korea’s experiment will be closely watched, as democracies worldwide search for ways to confront a problem that respects no borders and moves at lightning speed.
Source: Korea Times News
