Twitter election campaigns illegal

The court has laid down guilty verdicts to people indicted for spreading messages in support of their favorite election candidates through the micro-blogging service Twitter.

The rulings are in line with the National Election Commission (NEC)’s guideline that prevents politicians and their supporters from using Twitter for promotional activities starting from 180 days ahead of voting.

Twitter, which combines the strengths of blogs and instant messaging services, enables users to send and receive short messages of up to 140 characters on personal computers and mobile devices.

The Busan District Court said Sunday that it had slapped a fine of 1.2 million won ($1,000) on a 52-year-old for engaging in illegal election campaigning using Twitter.

The accused, identified only by his surname Lee, was among followers of a candidate running for the education superintendent of the nation’s second largest city in the June 2 local elections and posted supportive messages.

“It’s acknowledged that the accused publicized messages using the service in order to promote a certain candidate,” presiding Judge Kang Kyung-tae said. “Given the nature of the Internet, which is characterized by openness and mass circulation, his messages could damage the fairness of the elections.”

According to the court, Lee became a follower of the candidate in March and posted messages advocating him at least 16 times on Twitter.

In the meantime, another Twitter user, surnamed Choi, was fined 800,000 won for posting a video clip favorable to a candidate who ran for the mayor of Busan.

“His activity evidently undermined the fairness of the election so that rigorous punishment is deemed necessary,” Judge Kang ruled. “But I mitigated the sentence after taking into consideration that he posted only one clip and the candidate was a teacher he revered.”

Fortunately, the court verdicts were in accordance with the NEC’s stance but any discord between the two parties over the use of Twitter during elections could be reignited at any time because of the absence of laws governing the issue.

The NEC’s ban on the use of Twitter from 180 days ahead of voting was first applied to the June 2 local elections. The decision touched off a heated debate in political circles and the blogosphere.

Although the NEC cited the Korean Election Law that bans politicians from distributing promotional material and other content “with a similar purpose” from 180 days ahead of the voting date, the politicians eagerly responded to the social media bandwagon question whether a Twitter clampdown would be over-the-top.

“We see Twitter as a new service that combines the features of existing Web services like homepages and e-mail, so it’s natural that Twitter applies under the same rules as those,” said an NEC spokesman.

“Should we spot campaign violations or messages distributing misinformation about certain politicians or political parties, we will request the service provider to delete the content immediately. For illegal content from foreign accounts, we could request Twitter to block the account and prevent access to Korean Internet users.”

Meanwhile, the June 2 elections showed how mighty the latest online social networking tool is in attracting voters.

Many celebrities and ordinary citizens posted thousands of messages on the latest online social networking tool, encouraging fellow users to exercise their right to vote. Thanks partially to such messages the voter turnout for the recent elections was much higher than expected; nearly 55 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot nationwide, the second highest turnout since the first local elections in 1995 when the figure stood at 68.4 percent.



트위터 이용 선거운동 유죄

법원은 11일 특정 후보의 소규모 블로거인 트위터로 선거운동을 하면 불법이라는 판결을 내렸다.

이 판결은 중앙선거관리위원회가 선거일 180일 이내에 트위터를 통해 특정인의 선거운동을 금지하고 있는 것과 궤를 같이하고 있다.
블로그와 단문 메시지 서비스의 장점을 합친 트위터는 이용자들에게 PC나 이동통신 기기로 140자 까지 단문을 주고 받을 수 있게 돼 있다.

부산지법은 이날 트위터를 이용, 선가운동을 도운 혐의(공직선거법 위반)로 기소된 이모(52)씨에게 벌금 120만원을 선고했다고 밝혔다.

재판부는 "친분 있는 특정 후보를 도우려고 인터넷 사이트에 여러 가지의 게시물을 올린 점이 인정된다."라면서 "인터넷이라는 매체의 강력한 전파력과 공개성 등에 비추어 선거의 공정성을 해칠 위험이 적지 않다."라고 판시했다