Naver (035420.KS) has opened a special page for the 9th nationwide simultaneous local elections to be held on June 3 and is strengthening its comment policy on political and election articles.
Naver said Thursday that it opened the special page for the 9th nationwide simultaneous local elections on Wednesday, featuring a wide range of election information. The special page includes "Media PiCK," which provides election articles hand-picked by news outlets; "Regional Election News," which allows users to check tailored election information by region; "Opinion Polls," which can be viewed by news outlet and region; and various other information such as key election schedules, election basics, and past voter turnout rates.
On election day, June 3, a special election live section will also be offered, bringing together live broadcasts from television networks. Joint exit poll results from the three major broadcasters, as well as prediction survey results from other media outlets, will be available.
Since March 19, Naver has not provided comments at the bottom of articles in the politics and election sections. The full comment collection for these sections is displayed in reverse chronological order. Additionally, when "Cleanbot," an AI-based detection system, identifies malicious comments above a certain threshold within an article, the comments are automatically deactivated. If likes or dislikes increase intensively, measures such as displaying notification messages and deactivating comments at the bottom of articles are also taken.
During the election period, requests to delete comments related to candidates will be handled in accordance with the policies of the Korea Internet Self-Governance Organization (KISO) and in cooperation with the National Election Commission based on relevant laws.
Naver has implemented a feature that allows users to directly report news comments containing false election information, and has created a link from a separate reporting center to the National Election Commission channel. The company is responding to issues by strengthening 24-hour monitoring and establishing a hotline.
Meanwhile, once candidate registration for the nationwide simultaneous local elections closes on May 15, Naver plans to provide candidate information including names, photos, dates of birth, and educational backgrounds supplied by the National Election Commission starting May 21, the first day of the official campaign period. The company will also restrict autocomplete and search suggestion features for the names of candidates running in metropolitan mayoral elections, basic local government head elections, superintendent elections, and regional National Assembly by-elections.
"In preparation for the local elections, Naver is pursuing active policy changes and technological advancements to ensure accurate and fast information delivery and to make the election-related news comment section a venue for healthy communication," said Kim Soo-hyang, a Naver leader. "We will continue to cooperate with the National Election Commission, KISO, and others to prevent the spread of false information."
