Korea’s Youtube equivalent, Afreeca, has recently become more famous due to live coverage of candlelight vigils. On the 17th, the CEO of Afreeca was taken by the prosecutor’s office under the charge of having illegal activities on the Internet. The investigation and swift confinement by the government have given rise to suspicion that the government gets back at them due to the reputation that they got from their activities for candlelight vigils. The live coverage conveyed what’s happening on the spot of the demonstration to netizens, and large number of people watched it and appreciated that live coverage helped prevent physical violence from breaking out between the demonstrators and police, because there would be no way to hide who started it. Therefore, the action of the government leads to aggressive complaints from netizens.
Some netizens have different opinions. One in, “Is the investigation really the political suppression?”
"I can’t watch Euro 2008 because we didn’t apply for cable TV. In the past, public broadcasting channels showed the games. However public broadcasting companies occupy the cable channels and, as a result, those sports events disappeared from public channels. […]But there is always a way out. It was ‘Afreeca’ that presented itself as a ‘new continent of broadcasting. I could watch real time broadcasting programs that Naver even doesn’t show. […] Afreeca was really a ‘new continent’ to me. In the dawn when all regular broadcasting was over, I could join a festival that happens on the other side of the world through the monitor screen, not through the TV screen. It was amazing. […]
While owing to Afreeca I was able to watch Euro 2008, I was concerned about copyright.[…] This morning, I heard that Moon Yong Sik, CEO of Nowcom who manages Afreeca, was issued a warrant for arrest. Many netizens seem to interpret that it happened because Afreeca aired live coverage of candlelight vigils. It could be possible. But like I mentioned before, Afreeca has plenty of cause for disputes. I appreciate it as the person who uses it free, but copyright proprietors might have different opinions.
Afreeca is not a service that an enterprise provides. It has an infrastructure whereby members make their own programs and show them to other members. Therefore, it just provides the infrastructure and members use it for their own programs. It’s a kind of UCC. In a program, ‘What’s happening in the world’ in SBS broadcasting, it showed that a handicapped person who could not move around for 30 years could have a different life after he became a DJ on an Internet broadcast. He was isolated in a tiny space, but through Internet broadcasting, he found meaning and the reason of his life.
For these kinds of reasons, Afreeca should be continued. Like an advertisement for a telecom company, ‘for humans,’ many people found hope and pleasure. And their duty should be continued. It is unclear whether investigation by the prosecution started due to political pressure or copyright. Even though Nowcom is perplexed due to this happening, I hope that it leads in the right direction and result, and it continues its job."
Another netizen suggests a clear distinction of activities between illegal download and achievements of candlelight vigils.
"I saw today’s news that Moon Yong Sik, owner of Afreeca, is going to be investigated and prosecuted by political pressure.
“What Nowcom thinks about the investigation toward Moon Yong Sik, CEO of Nowcom.
Afreeca, Internet broadcasting, became the mecca of online demonstrations since more than 7 million people watched the candlelight vigils during live coverage from 25th of May to 10th of this month. Since the number joining Afreeca increased, it is hard to get rid of the doubt that this excess investigation includes political intentions from the government authority in order to prevent the spreading of candlelight vigils.”
It was on the public notice of Afreeca website and let all netizens know about it. With this notice, netizens raising candles started being crazy and shouted out that they should protect Afreeca. However, the reason why he is investigated now is not because he is the CEO of Afreeca TV, but because he is the CEO of PDBox. According to other media, CEOs of 11 webhard companies are all investigated and he is on the list because he disregarded copyright.
As a matter of fact, PDBox company was like the godfather of illegal download. Among those kinds of companies, 11 CEOs will be investigated and 5 of them were confined. Those five companies already have evidences to have activities of illegal download. In other words, there were not just bystanders, but criminals to encourage illegal activities. In addition, the prosecution said that they started the investigation from April before the candlelight vigils started.
But while Moon Yong Sik was dragged by the prosecution, it looks like he was a hero. Netizens who don’t like the Lee government regarded the CEO of Nowcom as the CEO of Afreeca and seemed to protect him, taking it as suppression of the press.
However, he is not an independent activist. He is the immoral CEO of PDBox company. The point is that we don’t need to protect or help him, asking helping from netizens for his own sake. He’s not an independent activist, but a terrorist."
Many other netizens are concerned that this arres will lead to gradual pressure on free speech and expression. One makes an example of other cases and talks about the function of the Internet.
"The Chinese government stopped 25 video UCC websites on the 20th of March and gave the warning to 10 sites. This means that the Chinese government will strongly control all video UCC and it could influence foreign investors. In addition, it can’t say it’s not relevant to the Tibetan Incident. This is not everything. Mentioning the “copyright for the Beijing Olympics,” the government started warning video UCC sites. Regarding this, most Chinese also regarded it as excess pressure. As a matter of fact, they talk about copyright regulations and warn UCC sites, but it is assumed that it might be a warning against anti-government videos. […]
Now I’m concerned about the Korean government because Chinese even think that what the Chinese government officially talks about ‘copyright’ could be for controlling the media. And Korea follows the same path. The Grand National Party tries to apply the side car point (that the stock market uses) to the Internet and the President still says, “untrustful Internet could be the poison rather than the medicine.” I really don’t understand what they think. Do they think that writing without any trust can motivate netizens? Netizens are like patients who doubt everything at first. If there are no references or links on posts, they don’t trust those writings. I myself also use the Internet based on this doubt. And the reason why netizens trust blogs is bloggers should publicize their profiles and they get trust through continual writings. It seems that they still don’t understand the Internet.[…]
Posted by Hyejin Kim