South Korea’s election regulatory agency announced on Wednesday that it had requested the removal of over 72,000 instances of false information regarding potential lawmakers ahead of the general election.
The National Election Commission (NEC) reported in a press release that it had identified 72,964 instances of violations against the country’s election laws from October 25 of last year to April 9, the day before the election. According to the Public Official Election Act, spreading misleading information about election candidates and their family members is strictly forbidden. The commission also stated that it had demanded the removal of all such unlawful content.
The spread of false information could potentially worsen, with the expected total number of identified cases of intentional misrepresentation set to exceed 76,000. This increase is due to about 3,000 cases identified on April 5 and April 7 not being initially included in the original total. The NEC revealed that it requested the removal of 1,084 cases on April 5 and 3,040 cases on April 7; however, only a quarter of these were counted in the previously stated total. The election commission has been publishing regularly updated figures in daily written statements on their official website from March 26 to the day of the election, April 10.
The regulatory agency additionally called for the removal of 384 instances of deepfake content. This action follows the recent amendment to election legislation, enacted in late January, which prohibits the fabrication of audio, images, and videos using artificial intelligence technology for campaign purposes, starting 90 days before an election. The law also covers editing, distributing, featuring, or posting manipulative content online. In response to these infractions, the election commission has taken stricter measures in three instances, issuing a warning in one case and requests for caution in two others.
The NEC informed The Readable that it could not reveal the specifics behind the criteria used to determine the severity of its disciplinary actions. However, the commission clarified that issuing a warning is considered more severe than a request for caution, with the latter involving the regulatory agency sending official cautionary documentation. “In more serious cases, the election commission has the authority to file a complaint with law enforcement,” an NEC official stated.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the election commission lodged a complaint against an individual accused of placing printouts about a particular candidate in the mailboxes of an apartment complex in Incheon. These printouts were of an edited article written in support of the politician. Up until April 9, the NEC has filed complaints in 153 cases for violations of the country’s election law, including physical assaults on employees and voter bribery.
