185 Global News Post 1

Synopsis: Netizen Report: Both Bangladesh and South Korea are waging a ‘war on porn’ — and paving the way for political censorship

https://globalvoices.org/2019/02/22/netizen-report-both-bangladesh-and-south-korea-are-waging-a-war-on-porn-and-paving-the-way-for-political-censorship/

In February 2019, South Korea as well as Bangladesh, publicly stated their plans to censor pornography and other content they see as questionable. In South Korea, the Korean Communications Standards Commission put out a statement confirming that authorities are using new technologies to identify and block pornography and pirated content. This allowed authorities to block HTTPS content easily.

Producing and circulating pornography in South Korea is illegal and heavily regulates intellectual property rights because of its trade agreement with the United States. This created worry about the possibility of censorship on sites that do not include pornography, risking the infringement of people’s rights and freedom of speech and expression.

These actions taken by the Korean government caused citizens to create a petition on the official website of President Moon Jae-In. This petition argued that this plan to censor the media will be a waste of taxpayer money and time. More than 250,000 people signed the petition.

This situation in South Korea brings up the nuanced conversation on censorship. While the Korean government is trying to protect the citizens by censoring pornography which has its own long-lasting effects, it could also lead to heavy censorship. However, the government choosing not to censor media, it leaves a lot up to the individual to have a sufficient level of media literacy. The perspective in the article is very neutral. The article is just reporting news and both aspects of the issue of censorship.

Photo Citation: 
Doctrow, C. (2019). "The problem with censorship is". Global Voices. Retrieved 2023, from https://globalvoices.org/2019/02/22/netizen-report-both-bangladesh-and-south-korea-are-waging-a-war-on-porn-and-paving-the-way-for-political-censorship/.