Sarah Rogers, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, expressed optimism about cooperation between South Korea and the United States regarding South Korea's amendment to the Information and Communications Network Act.
Rogers held a meeting with Korean and Japanese journalists at the Foreign Press Center (FPC) in Washington, D.C., on the 7th (local time), where she made this assessment regarding the results of her recent visits to South Korea and Japan. On the 1st, Rogers had held the 2nd Korea-U.S. Public Diplomacy Consultation in Seoul with Lim Sang-woo, South Korea's Ambassador for Public Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during which she conveyed concerns within the United States about the network act.
Rogers said on this day, "We had a very productive dialogue with South Korea," adding, "The conversation was constructive overall, and it made me optimistic about future cooperation, particularly regarding specific provisions focused on engagement." The amendment to the Information and Communications Network Act (Network Act) includes provisions imposing obligations on operators such as Google, X (formerly Twitter), and Meta to delete and block false and manipulated information. However, information pertaining to matters of public interest is excluded from the scope of application. The law is set to take effect in July.
Rogers noted that there are ambiguities in defining "public interest" that could lead to excessive censorship, stating, "We wanted to make sure there was appropriate step-by-step communication between the government and companies to limit potential over-censorship of expression." She went on to assess that "on that point, the results of the discussions (with South Korea) were quite encouraging." She also said, "We are curious whether the authority of the Korea Media and Communications Committee (KMCC) to review companies' content management systems might create undue incentives for companies to excessively regulate expression in the direction the government desires," repeatedly raising the possibility of suppression of freedom of expression. Nonetheless, she emphasized, "The impression I got from the dialogue is that the Korean side understands this issue," adding, "We look forward to continued consultations on this matter as the regulations are implemented."
Rogers had previously expressed public concern late last year via X about the amendment to the network act, stating that "on the surface, it appears to focus on correcting the problem of reputation-damaging deepfakes, but in reality, it has far broader implications and jeopardizes technology cooperation."