Over 56,000 online petitions have been created since President Moon Jae-in, to commemorate his 100th day in office, said the Blue House website would serve as a bulletin board for citizens to post their requests directly to the nation’s highest ranking public servant. (Image: Blue House Official Website in English)
SEOUL, Dec. 5 (Korea Bizwire) – Over 56,000 online petitions have been created since President Moon Jae-in, to commemorate his 100th day in office, said the Blue House website would serve as a bulletin board for citizens to post their requests directly to the nation’s highest ranking public servant.
So far, seven petitions have accrued 100,000 or more votes of approval, and two have attained the 200,000 votes within a period of 30 days necessary to warrant a direct response from a Blue House official.
Blue House petitions have become topics of interest in the public sphere, and heightened awareness of the subjects of these requests have become trending talking points on online platforms and news outlets.
The anti-abortion petition was one of the two protests registered on the Blue House website that garnered the requisite 200,000 votes of approval. (Image: Yonhap)
On November 4, big data analysis firm Daumsoft disclosed that mentions of Blue House petitions had risen drastically month-to-month starting from August when looking at relevant big data. Daumsoft identified 2,585 mentions in August that increased tenfold to 27,085 mentions in September. The number of mentions continued to rise through October and November, with 58,355 and 67,593 mentions, respectively.
Daumsoft’s research revealed that there was little overlap between the Blue House petitions that had received the most support and the most discussed topics online.
Scanning the list of the “Best Petitions” list on the Blue House’s website, the titles are “Cho Do-soon must not be released” (600,815), “Abolish the Juvenile Protection Act” (296,330), “Repeal the anti-abortion law” (235,372) and “Request to abolish lenient sentences for the intoxicated” (212,814).
In contrast, the petitions-related keywords most frequently mentioned online were “anti-abortion law” (144,513), “Maru” (72,038), “Alcohol” (32,976), “Lee Myung-bak” (32,426) and “Military” (22,787).
The anti-abortion petition was one of the two protests registered on the Blue House website that garnered the requisite 200,000 votes of approval. As a result, the Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs Cho Kuk released a statement promising a fact-finding investigation would be launched next year.
Cho gained notoriety when he was convicted of raping an 8-year old girl in 2008 in what is now referred to as the “Nayoung Case”. (Image: Yonhap)
The other topic of interest shared on both fronts was “alcohol” and “Request to abolish lenient sentences for the intoxicated”. Those convicted of a crime can have their sentences downgraded if the accused was inebriated. This particular social concern is closely tied to the “Cho Do-soon must not be released” petition, as Cho saw his prison term reduced from 15 to 12 years under the “drunken plea”. Cho gained notoriety when he was convicted of raping an 8-year old girl in 2008 in what is now referred to as the “Nayoung Case”.
Overall, Daumsoft found that attitudes towards the petitions were positive, with 72 percent of all expressions conveying positive emotion. Commonly stated words were “Thankful”, “Accomplished” and “I like”.
Daumsoft canvassed over 371.2 million blogs, 1.2 billion Twitter messages and 2.57 million news articles from August 19 to November 29 for its research.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
