Gov‘t to launch fake news task force ahead of elections

[Graphics by Song Ji-yoon]

The South Korean government recently announced it would launch an official task force on false information and fake news amid a coming legislative election on April 11th, 2024. The move comes as global social media platform operators have been uncooperative in countering false information on politicians and President Yoon Suk Yeol, saying that such measures are outside their remit.

Sources familiar with the issue said on Sunday that the Korea Communications Commission will form a joint task force to counter fake news by engaging officials from both Korean and global social media platform operators, including Naver Corp., Kakao Corp., Google Inc., and Meta Platforms Inc.

“The government and relevant officials are rushing to complete the work as quickly as possible as the country votes in a legislative election coming in just a few weeks’ time,” a source said.

The task force will be responsible for gathering and supervising the fake news posted on social media. The institution is expected to develop various measures, including real-time monitoring of false information, a watermark for artificial intelligence (AI) generated content, and prompt actions on ill-grounded digital content.