The South Korean government is once again intensifying its efforts toward internet censorship. They have directly contacted Cloudflare to restrict access to various "inappropriate" sites, and the recently resurrected Iwara is among those affected. (In other words, South Korean users can no longer access Iwara without a VPN.)
But it doesn't stop there. Starting July 1st (KST), all korean online communities will be required to run every uploaded image through an AI filter. If a post is flagged by this filter, it will be impossible to even create the post. The criteria for this filtering follow a database managed by the South Korean government, which also reserves the power to issue additional administrative orders or guidelines.
Oh, and the cost for the server resources required for this is to be borne by the individual communities themselves. Since this involves filtering every single image and video uploaded, the resource consumption is expected to be massive, yet the government is shifting this financial burden onto the platforms.
As a South Korean citizen, I have lived with various forms of censorship my whole life, but this level of intervention is unprecedented. Of course, they have their justifications: they claim to be blocking illegal gambling sites or non-consensual sexual content (deeply hidden illegal recordings). But is it ever right for a state to implement such widespread prior censorship?
I find it impossible to understand why the Republic of Korea, a liberal democracy, is attempting to follow the path of communist regimes like China or North Korea. (I mean no offense to any Chinese users on this forum.)
