Kakao detects rigging of Daum's cheering numbers in match against China

Politics

Published: 04 Oct. 2023, 18:40 Updated: 04 Oct. 2023, 21:00

Kakao detects rigging of Daum's cheering numbers in match against China

The South Korean national team faces off against the Chinese team during the quarterfinal match for the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, on Sunday. [YONHAP]

Kakao, the operator of Daum, the No. 2 Korean portal, said Wednesday it plans to seek a police investigation into possible manipulation of public opinion on its site amid the ongoing Hangzhou Asian Games.

In the aftermath of the Asian Games men's football quarterfinal match between South Korea and China on Sunday, 93.2 percent of cheers on Daum's online cheering page went to the Chinese team at its peak, according to data from Kakao, compared to a mere 6.8 percent to the South Korean team, drawing immediate public scrutiny.

In a statement, Kakao said that it identified "an unusual phenomenon in which macro manipulation took place late at night," when there are usually few users on its Daum portal site.

Kakao analyzed the approximately 31.3 million clicks made and found that out of 22.94 million clicks cheering for China, 19.93 million, or 86.9 percent, came from just two overseas IP addresses.

Of these overseas clicks, two IP addresses accounted for 19.89 million, or 99.8 percent, of overseas clicks.

It confirmed that 15.39 million clicks, or nearly 80 percent, came from one IP address in the Netherlands and 4.49 million from another IP address traced to Japan. Many of those clicks came after 12:30 a.m. Monday, after the game ended.

Kakao said it will request a police investigation, noting that the activities on Daum mark a "serious act of obstruction of business."

The Korea Communications Commission, the state broadcasting watchdog, reported to the prime minister Wednesday that it believed foreign users may have used virtual private networks (VPNs) to bypass blocks and access the portal, posing as Korean netizens and utilizing a macro program to automate large numbers of clicks supporting China.

Daum suspended the cheering site from Monday.

People Power Party (PPP) Rep. Park Sung-joong told reporters in a press conference at the National Assembly on Wednesday that 99 percent of 5.6 million cheering clicks on Daum from 8 a.m. on Sunday, the day of the quarterfinal match, to 11:30 p.m. after the match ended, were Korean IP addresses.

However, Park likewise said abnormal activity was confirmed during late-night hours, and clicks surged by more than 21.07 million.

"Experts know that not only does the Netherlands and Japan have no reason to support China based on common sense, but the Netherlands is often used [as a popular virtual private network location] due to its advantages, such as VPN speed," Park said.

Park, in turn, raised accusations that there are "pro-Democratic Party (DP) forces behind the incident," calling to "severely punish those who manipulate public opinion ahead of elections."

The ratio of IP addresses accessing the Daum sports page is 99.6 percent Korean, according to data submitted to Rep. Park by Kakao, 0.1 percent from Japan, 0.1 percent from the United States and 0.2 percent from other countries. China blocks Daum access.

People Power Party (PPP) Rep. Park Sung-joong holds a press conference on the controversy regarding allegations of online manipulation of public opinion on the Daum portal site during the Asian Games at the National Assembly in western Seoul on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Wednesday ordered the establishment of an interagency task force (TF) to look into allegations of manipulation of public opinion on Daum, the No. 2 Korean portal site, as a part of efforts to counter disinformation.

"Fake news is a serious social catastrophe that shakes the foundation of democracy," Han said, addressing the suspicions that external influences attempted to sway public opinion on Daum's page on the Hangzhou Asian Games.

Han called for a task force to "prepare measures to prevent the distortion and manipulation of public opinion" involving related agencies, including the Korea Communications Commission, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, according to the Office for Government Policy Coordination.

"The interagency task force must be swiftly formed and come up with measures to prevent a recurrence of the Druking incident, including legislature combating fake news," Han said, referring to an opinion-rigging scandal ahead of the 2017 presidential election.

Political power blogger Kim Dong-won, better known by his online alias Druking, and his associates were accused of engaging in a systematic campaign beginning in late 2016 to sway public opinion in favor of then-liberal candidate Moon Jae-in's bid ahead of the 2017 presidential election by manipulating the comments section on Naver, Korea's largest portal site. Moon won the snap election in May 2017.

Kim was later indicted for running a computer program to rack up the "likes" for political comments to boost public sentiment for the liberal DP and its presidential candidate. Kim was sentenced by an appellate court in 2019 to three years in prison for manipulating online comments on news articles and bribery.

The Supreme Court upheld Kim's sentence in 2020.

The governing PPP chief also raised concerns that Daum could be used to manipulate public opinion ahead of the general elections next April.

"I can't help but be concerned that with just six months left before next year's general election, the roots of public opinion manipulation and Druking have spread far and wide," Kim Gi-hyeon, the PPP chairman, wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday.

He pointed out that during the women's football quarterfinal match between the two Koreas last Saturday, the ratio of cheers for the North reached 75 percent compared to 25 percent for the South on the Daum page.

"I can't shake off the suspicion that Daum could be serving as a host for manipulating public opinion," Kim added, noting the portal site's "strong left-leaning tendencies," which he said could "raise serious questions as to whether the specter of public opinion manipulation is being revived again ahead of next year's general elections."

Kim called for "thorough" fact-finding probes by Daum, the National Assembly and the Korea Communications Commission, raising concerns that political maneuvering may be underway to rig election results.

"An incredulous incident has occurred where the number of people supporting China was significantly higher on a portal site mainly used by Koreans," Kim wrote. "At this very moment, public opinion is being manipulated somewhere."

He said the National Intelligence Service must also thoroughly check suspicions of communist activities and indirect manipulation from abroad that threaten national security.

Kakao said it will "inspect and improve our monitoring system to prevent abusive acts from occurring throughout our services in the future."

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]