KOREA: Court rules UCC-based campaigning illegal

Constitutional Court says user-created content should be treated the same as political posters, commercials, leaflets and other publicity materials since it carries the same promotional or critical message

The Korea Times
Monday, August 3, 2009

By Bae Ji-sook

The Constitutional Court ruled Monday that it was constitutional to ban user-created content (UCC) in political campaigns.

The court said UCC should be treated the same as posters, TV advertisements and other promotional tools, the use of which are prohibited for 180 days prior to the official campaign period. The eight judges voted 5-3 to ban the use of UCC.

According to the Election Law, posters, leaflets, documents and other materials containing promotional or critical messages of a certain person also cannot be distributed for 14 days prior to voting.

The judges said what matters is the message that is contained in the materials, and that anything carrying such ideas could clearly be referred to as a campaign tool.

They said that the law is aimed at preventing "excessive" competition and guaranteeing the fairness of elections.

Dissenting judges backing the use of UCC said, however, "It is yet unclear which UCC should be regulated and which should not be regulated". They also said it is unclear whether restricting the messages online could be guaranteeing equality.

Videos and images are now considered some of the most effective campaign tools. The former President Roh Moo-hyun was one of the major beneficiaries of the "UCC boom" among young voters. Online video-sharing site www.youtube.com was one of the arenas for debate during the U.S. Presidential election last year.

Date Posted: 8/3/2009