“You have to find fault with state power abuse, not with a company unable to resist the power. If you are not happy with it, there is no way for you but to pack up and go to some other country. I don’t like what has happened with KakaoTalk but the criticism to how the management handles the matter is wrongheaded.”
“What I wanted to say to civil rights advocacy group leaders was this. They have to focus their criticism on the abuse of state power that caused the situation in the first place and suggest ways to fix the problem in the legal system. Just bad-mouthing companies that complied with law enforcement agencies won’t do any good.”
“Of course, consumers have rights to complain about their civil right breaches whether it was government or company to blame. But I believe leaders must be different in that they have the ability to tell the primary target from others.”
Lee Jaewoong, the founder of Daum Communications
The controversy over censorship on KakaoTak conversations began on September 19 when the Prosecutors’ Office announced a plan to strengthen its censorship on online forums.(image: Kobizmedia/Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Oct. 10 (Korea Bizwire) – Lee Jaewoong, the founder of Daum Communications, made clear his positions on the recent controversy surrounding KakaoTalk censorship and his remarks defending Daum Kakao in handling the whole affairs.
His remarks were in reply to a comment by Ha Seung-chang, a civil rights advocate and founder of online discussion forum “ThinkCafe,” who criticized Daum Kakao CEO for his ignorance on corporate social obligations to protect customers’ privacy against government encroachment.
The controversy over censorship on KakaoTak conversations began on September 19 when the Prosecutors’ Office announced a plan to strengthen its censorship on online forums.
Lee Jae-woong, founder of Daum Communications
KakaoTalk users demanded the company’s position on the matter out of fear that their conversations may be under government surveillance, to which Daum Kakao repeated a stock answer that there is no real-time censorship.
Even on October 1 in a Daum-Kakao press conference, Kakao CEO Lee Sir-goo said, “I haven’t been given any report on the matter. But we will fully cooperate with the prosecutors’ request.”
Meanwhile, Daum founder Lee Jaewoong posted three KakaoTalk messages criticizing the government, which went viral on the Internet on October 8. Mr. Lee is also active in Facebook by posting a series of comments how the media responded to his recent utterances.
On the 2nd, he said he never took on a job as an executive or took charge of a new business in the merged company between Daum and Kakao, blaming reporters for their ineptitude.
By Sean Chung (schung10@koreabizwire.com)
