"Complaints against Insurrection." A war of words..."Censorship of KakaoTalk vs. Do you leave it unattended?"

[Anchor]
The ruling and opposition parties have engaged in a war of words over the Democratic Party's private plane's remarks that it would accuse them of spreading fake news related to propaganda on social media.

The ruling party warned of legal action, calling it so-called "Kakao Talk censorship" and intimidation and coercion against the people, and Jeon protested, asking if it was about neglecting illegal activities.

Reporter Park Kwang-ryul reports.

[Reporter]
Earlier, the Democratic Party of Korea's National Communication Committee's false manipulation watchdog accused far-right YouTubers and others of defending President Yoon's emergency martial law.

At the same time, he warned that the act of the general public spreading fake news related to emergency martial law through comments, social media, and messengers could be punished for propaganda of rebellion.

[Chun Yong / Democratic Party member (last 10th): Even if it's just an ordinary person, we'll file a complaint about incitement of rebellion or fake news. You're supposed to make sure that you don't participate in such insurrection....]

Then, the ruling party criticized the government, saying, "Are you trying to accuse citizens by censoring the contents of the Kakao Talk conversation?"

Rep. Lee Sang-hwi pointed out on social media that he was overpaid, or tax-payers, and Rep. Kim Ki-hyun responded that it was a Communist Party-style idea to control the people's thoughts.

The ruling party said it believes the remarks constitute a crime of coercion or intimidation against the general public, signaling legal action.

[Joo Jin-woo / Chairman of the People's Power Legal Advisory Committee: It is an extremely anti-democratic act to cover up the people who are critical of the Democratic Party with the crime of "propaganda of civil war and incitement" and goes directly against the constitutional principle of prohibiting censorship]

As the controversy continued, Rep. Jeon counter-attacked on his SNS, saying that the spread of malicious false information that violates the law cannot be protected by freedom of expression, and that the ruling party should leave the illegal act of inciting civil war unattended.

He added that the word 'censorship of kakaotalk' is absurd, adding that anyone should recognize that fake news about the propaganda of rebellion should not be spread through kakaotalk or SNS and can be a crime.

I'm Park Kwang Ryul of YTN.

Reporter for filming
: Lee Sung-mo Han Sang-won
Video editing: Choi Yeon-ho
Design: Kim Jin-ho