South Korean May Take Legal Action Over Google’s YouTube Law Loophole

Apr 21, 2009 at 9:41am ET by Barry Schwartz

paidContent reports South Korean officials are not happy with how Google skirted around their law to continue to allow YouTube to operate in Korea by simply turning off video comments and upload ability in that country.

South Korea passed a new law requiring sites with 100,000 unique visitors per day to require users to provide their real name and national ID card number before posting videos and comments. Google decided to simply remove the ability to post videos and comments on YouTube Korea, but allowed it on other YouTube properties, i.e. YouTube US, even while accessed within South Korea.

Google said then:

We have a bias in favor of freedom of expression and are committed to openness. It’s very important that if users want to be anonymous that they have that chance.

Now South Korean officials are a tad upset with Google. So much so that the Korean government is considering legal action against Google.

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

See more articles by Barry Schwartz >

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