Watchdog demands stronger internal monitoring for 'Depression Gallery'

Social Affairs

Published: 22 May. 2023, 19:06 Updated: 22 May. 2023, 19:18

Watchdog demands stronger internal monitoring for 'Depression Gallery'

[SHUTTERSTOCK]

Korea's online communications watchdog called for stronger internal oversight at major online forum DCinside after several teenage users killed themselves or attempted to kill themselves.

The Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) has been reviewing whether to shut down the so-called “Depression Gallery” bulletin board at DCiniside, an online community consisting of many bulletin boards categorized according to a wide range of subjects such as entertainment, hobbies, education and politics.

The Depression Gallery is a bulletin board where users suffering from depression post and share about their condition.

The board came under fire when a high school girl, a subscriber of the gallery, committed suicide by jumping from a building’s rooftop in southern Seoul on April 16. The entire process was live-streamed on social media after she consulted the board on the matter. It was later revealed that she was an active user of the board.

On May 5, two teenage girls who met on the Depression Gallery attempted suicide at the Hannam Bridge in Seoul.

The police asked the KCSC to temporarily close down the board to prevent additional suicide attempts. The police also requested DCinside to shut down the board, as there were “dangers of secondary victimization as malicious comments and footage of the victim’s [suicide attempt] spread.”

However, DCinside refused, claiming that “the copyrights of the posts belong to the users and closing down the board may infringe upon users’ rights to see the posts to which they have the copyrights.”

Instead, the commission requested that the website operator strengthen its voluntary regulations through a meeting on Monday.

Four out of five members of the commission board voted to strengthen censorings its content, while the other voted there was no need to block the board.

On May 12, five out of nine members of the KCSC's special advisory committee voted against blocking the board, judging that there was not enough illegal content in the section to justify such a move. It also took into consideration that some depressed people find comfort in sharing their mental state with the community.

The KCSC board came to a consensus that blocking the Depression Gallery could be an excessive form of regulation and would not fundamentally solve the problem.

“Many boards exist within DCinside, and among the 91 posts at the site that induce or imply suicide, only five came from the Depression Gallery,” said KCSC’s Vice Chairman Lee Kwang-bok. “It’s an abuse of power on our part to shut down the bulletin board altogether just because a teenager who committed suicide was active there.”

Other experts criticize the regulator for sitting on its hands, claiming that the right to life is more important than freedom of expression.

“Shutting down the Depression Gallery is related to the right to life, which comes before freedom of expression,” said Professor Lee Sang-yeop of Korea University’s Graduate School of Management of Technology. “If a platform cannot censor itself, the KCSC needs to make a strict judgment considering the seriousness of the situation.”

Others criticize the lack of input from the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), a state-run media regulation agency. The KCSC is an administrative organization that monitors and censors online content.

“The KCSC is an independent organization and the power to shut down [the website] belongs to it,” said a KCC spokesperson. “We specifically asked the KCSC to closely monitor the situation at hand. We also asked 66 online operators to focus on censoring sensitive content such as suicide, and we separately requested DCinside, twice, to monitor its content.

“It’s difficult for the KCC to directly order a company to strengthen its internal censorship.”

Foreign entities, on the other hand, are working to enforce stronger, stricter measures on platform operators related to illegal or harmful content.

For instance, the European Union will implement the Digital Services Act, which regulates intermediary services such as social media, online marketplaces and search engines from August. The DSA aims to prevent the spread of content that discriminates on the basis of race, gender or religion, as well as content that promotes terrorism or child abuse.

The European Commission in April designated 17 online platforms and two search engines that have at least 45 million monthly active users, including Google, YouTube and Facebook. Designated entities need to swiftly eliminate problematic content and make annual reports on risk assessment to the commission.

Violators face fines of up to six percent of the entity's global revenue.

If you or someone you know is feeling emotionally distressed or struggling with thoughts of suicide, LifeLine Korea can be contacted at 1588-9191. The Seoul Foreign Resident Center offers English-language counseling. Contact 02-2229-4900 to arrange a session. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.

BY LEE JAE-LIM, YU SUNG-KUK [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]