U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary
08/06/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/06/2026 12:29
Judiciary Republicans Raise Concerns About South Korea Law Targeting American Companies and Online Speech
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust Chairman Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-WA) sent a letter to Kim Jong-cheol, Chairman of the Korea Media and Communications Commission (KMCC), raising concerns about South Korea's recent amendment that would allow the KMCC to punish American companies and their users for exercising their constitutionally protected rights.
Recently, South Korea amended its Information and Communications Network Act to give courts the unprecedented power to punish news outlets and social media users for spreading "false or manipulated information" and extract damage awards of up to five times any alleged harm. It would also allow the KMCC to impose massive fines on news outlets and users that it deems to have spread such information.
The amendment is specifically aimed at American companies and was reportedly designed to address "false and manipulated information spread" on American-owned platforms like YouTube. The amendment targets "content publisher[s] with over 100,000 subscribers, or a monthly average of 100,000 views," as well as "large platforms. . . with over a million daily users on average." It requires large platforms to "institute formal procedures to respond to complaints, take down offending content, generate transparency reports, and submit to governmental investigations." The vast majority of online platforms that fall within these criteria, such as Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube, are American-owned companies.
The KMCC has publicly stated that it will not be providing a grace period for companies to come into compliance with the amended policy, which could force American companies to remove speech or face massive fines and penalties for failing to comply, giving South Korea the ability to coerce American businesses into removing politically disfavored speech, including the speech of American citizens that may be available in South Korea or shared by South Korean users.
The Committee has previously documented efforts by foreign regulators to use the threat of false or misleading information to exercise greater control over online expression and censor politically disfavored speech. South Korea seems to be following in the EU's footsteps, adopting legislation modeled directly on the DSA.
Read the letter to Chairman Kim Jong-cheol here.
Recently, South Korea amended its Information and Communications Network Act to give courts the unprecedented power to punish news outlets and social media users for spreading "false or manipulated information" and extract damage awards of up to five times any alleged harm. It would also allow the KMCC to impose massive fines on news outlets and users that it deems to have spread such information.
The amendment is specifically aimed at American companies and was reportedly designed to address "false and manipulated information spread" on American-owned platforms like YouTube. The amendment targets "content publisher[s] with over 100,000 subscribers, or a monthly average of 100,000 views," as well as "large platforms. . . with over a million daily users on average." It requires large platforms to "institute formal procedures to respond to complaints, take down offending content, generate transparency reports, and submit to governmental investigations." The vast majority of online platforms that fall within these criteria, such as Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube, are American-owned companies.
The KMCC has publicly stated that it will not be providing a grace period for companies to come into compliance with the amended policy, which could force American companies to remove speech or face massive fines and penalties for failing to comply, giving South Korea the ability to coerce American businesses into removing politically disfavored speech, including the speech of American citizens that may be available in South Korea or shared by South Korean users.
The Committee has previously documented efforts by foreign regulators to use the threat of false or misleading information to exercise greater control over online expression and censor politically disfavored speech. South Korea seems to be following in the EU's footsteps, adopting legislation modeled directly on the DSA.
Read the letter to Chairman Kim Jong-cheol here.
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