Google pressed on ‘fake news’

South Korea’s ruling party members will visit the local unit of Google Inc. on Monday to request that the company delete more than 100 YouTube videos which they claim contain malicious fake information.

Rep. Park Kwang-on, the chief of the Democratic Party’s (DP) special panel fighting fake news, said that its recent initial probe has found 146 pieces of false, manipulated information, including 104 posted on the global video-sharing site.

“Panel members will visit Google Korea today and deliver the findings and ask it to delete such posts,” Park said at a meeting with party members. “This is to highlight social responsibility among internet companies at home and abroad.”

The party will also ask the state-run Communications Standards Commission to examine the videos in question, he said. “After completing a legal review, we plan to proceed with legal actions,” he added.

The DP set up the panel last week in time for the start of parliamentary auditing of government agencies.

The government is planning to unveil a set of measures to crack down on fake news, which Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon recently denounced as a “disturber of democracy.”

Lee has ordered stern measures after a guestbook message he left at the late Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh’s residence last month was falsely regarded online as praising North Korea’s leadership.

During the parliamentary audit session, some lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties raised concerns that the clampdown could be used as a tool to suppress news critical of the administration.

Yonhap