Web Portals Compromised   2008-06-06 16:34

Daum Agora has been one of the People's most important channel of communication lately. There, anyone can suggest anything and ask for opinions, and anyone who disagrees can freely express their concerns. Many of our candlelight vigils have been organized through those forums, so much so that the first thing the police wanted to hear from those who were arrested last week was whether or not they were members of Daum Agora. Since yesterday, however, we've been noticing that something is wrong with Daum Agora. First, the site went down for several hours. When it came back online, many posts and comments had been removed, most of which were related to police violence and other sensitive issues. It is clear that Daum Communications, Inc. is actively engaging in self-censorship in cooperation with the government; and the confessions of an anonymous employee, posted on another site, bolsters our suspicion. We have lost a great weapon today. The government has dealt another heavy blow to our freedom of speech.

Many other well-known web portals in the Republic of Korea have already been compromised. Naver has been filtering criticisms of Lee Myung-Bak since even before he became President, prompting concerned citizens to cancel their Naver accounts in protest. Afreeca -- a video sharing site which helped many people broadcast themselves on the streets -- is also strangely quiet, not the least because Naver removed Afreeca from its search results last week. A couple of days ago, President Lee said at a meeting that he would now "pay more attention" to the Internet. Some might have understood him as acknowledging the relevance of the netizens' concerns, but it turns out that what he had in mind was more pressure for censorship. Why else would Daum Agora suddenly turn against the People?

A few websites remain open, including Agorian (a place where people can post anything that's banned from the web portals) and Ohmynews (a left-wing news site). The Republic of Korea is the most wired country in the world. Censoring the major portals will not keep us from speaking up. People are donating their own servers for democracy's sake, and a few are also looking to open an alternative website overseas in case the police seizes servers hosting anti-government sites. (For your information, this website is located in California, so hopefully we'll be able to keep you updated for days to come.)

Despite the sizable blow to our most important channel of communication, 50,000 people are out there protesting today. Families and high-school students are playing large parts again, with one 16-year-old making headlines by calling her mom on camera, saying "Sorry, I'll study later. I'm a little busy right now protecting the country!" Rock and jazz bands are improvising anti-government songs to the crowd's cheer. Today is the beginning of a long weekend in Korea, and protests will continue non-stop. Anyone can join us at any time, and you're also free to take a break if you're tired. Nobody is forcing anyone to join or to leave. It's all voluntary and spontaneous.

Protests are also being held or planned by overseas Koreans in London, Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles, New York, and Vancouver. Like this website, these protests will help bring the world's attention to President Lee's violation of our rights.

Rumors of a death due to police violence continue to spread. The topic is banned in all major web portals, making People suspect even more that the government is hiding something. Alleged photographic evidence of a young woman being killed and carried away is in circulation (Sorry, we can't link to those pictures because web portals have been quick to delete them), but the truth remains unclear. Perhaps someone did lose her life. Perhaps it's an ill-conceived plot to provoke violence among us. We just don't know yet. We can only hope that no lives were lost.

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