Anchor: Amid suspicions of “click manipulation” on South Korean portal service Daum during the Asian Games, Kakao announced on Tuesday that it will request a police investigation into the matter. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo ordered the formation of a pan-government task force to prepare preventive measures against such influence.
Max Lee reports.

Report: During the quarterfinal of Asian Games men’s football between South Korea and China, the ratio of “cheering clicks” on South Korea’s portal website Daum raised suspicions of manipulation.

Despite the fact that the website is mainly used by South Koreans, support for China reached 91 percent at one point compared to a mere nine percent for the South Korean side during Sunday’s game.

The portal also generated suspicious outcomes in Saturday’s women’s football quarterfinal match between the two Koreas, with cheering for North Korea reaching 75 percent while support for South Korea came to 25 percent.

Kakao Corporation, which owns Daum, announced on Tuesday that it will request a police investigation, adding that macro-manipulation has influenced the “cheering page” for the Hangzhou Asian Games on its portal.

In a press release on Wednesday, Kakao also noted that the support for China was inflated through the use of automation programs and virtual private networks, with 15-point-39 million clicks coming from a Dutch IP address while four-point-49 million clicks were from a Japanese IP address out of a total of 31-point-three million clicks.

Kakao added that it has stopped its “cheering service” in light of the ability of users to click an unlimited number of times without using a login, thereby inflating the ratio of support for a certain side.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo ordered the formation of a pan-government task force to prepare preventive measures against such manipulation on Daum.

According to the prime minister’s office on Wednesday, Han ordered the urgent formation of the task force, centered around the Korea Communication Commission and related ministries such as the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Han stressed that fake news is a serious social problem that shakes the foundation of democracy, and to prevent incidents of political opinion-rigging the government must act thusly. 

People Power Party chief Kim Gi-hyeon on Wednesday also stressed the need to stop such opinion manipulation from happening as it could cause problems leading up to next year’s general elections.
Max Lee, KBS World Radio News.