Legislative Notice on Criteria for Information and Communications Service Providers Obligated to Prevent the Spread of Disinformation

The Amendment (the “Amendment”) to the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection (the “Network Act” and, as amended by the Amendment, the “Amended Network Act”) is scheduled to take effect on July 7, 2026. The Amendment imposes various obligations on large-scale information and communications service providers, including to prevent the dissemination of disinformation, to establish mechanisms for reporting and taking measures on disinformation, to publish transparency reports, and to establish self-regulatory operational policies. On May 12, 2026, the Korea Media and Communications Commission (the “KMCC”) announced a legislative notice to give a preview of some of the proposed amendments to the Enforcement Decree (the “Draft Enforcement Decree”) to implement the new provisions of the Amended Network Act. The KMCC plans to solicit public comments on the Draft Enforcement Decree until May 27, 2026. The key provisions of the Draft Enforcement Decree are as follows.

Criteria for Large-Scale Information and Communications Service Providers

Article 2, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 3-2 of the Amended Network Act delegates to the Enforcement Decree the specific criteria for large-scale information and communications service providers. The Draft Enforcement Decree designates a service provider as a large-scale information and communications service provider if it meets both of the following requirements (Article 2-2 of the Draft Enforcement Decree):

(1)	The average daily number of users during the three months immediately preceding the end of the prior calendar year must be at least one million; and

(2)	The service provider must offer either (i) user-to-user information intermediary service or (ii) search service among services that enable the posting, transmission, sharing, or searching of information publicly distributed on information and communications networks.

For item (i) of the second requirement above, the “user-to-user information intermediary service” refers to any service falling under one of the following three categories:

Services for communication and information exchange among users, such as social networking services and online communities;
Services that enable information to be posted or transmitted for viewing, reading, or sharing, such as video sharing services; or
Services that provide information regarding the brokerage or facilitation of transactions for goods or services.

For item (ii) of the second requirement above, the “search service” refers to a service whose purpose is to provide technical means to transmit relevant information (including transmitting the location of such information on the network, such as through a link) or other search results in the form of symbols, text, voice, audio, images, videos, etc., to users.

According to the Regulatory Impact Analysis published alongside the Legislative Notice, the average daily number of users was calculated based on averages from major research firms such as Nielsen, Rankey, and Mobile Index, and it is expected that similar measurement methods will continue to be used in the future.

Therefore, businesses providing the user-to-user information intermediary service or search service should proactively prepare compliance measures to prevent the dissemination of disinformation under the Amended Network Act if they already meet the number-of-user requirement or anticipate an increase in the coming future.

Businesses that qualify as large-scale information and communications service providers will be subject to the following obligations under the Amended Network Act:

(i)	To receive reports of and take measures on illegal information and disinformation;

(ii)	To establish self-regulatory operational policies;

(iii)

To publish a transparency report on a semi-annual basis; and

(iv)	To support fact-checking activities, including entering into service agreements with fact-checking organizations.

Methods for Publishing Transparency Reports

Article 44-14 of the Amended Network Act requires large-scale information and communications service providers to prepare and publish a transparency report at least once every six months. The Draft Enforcement Decree specifies the method of publication and required contents in detail (Article 35-7 of the Draft Enforcement Decree).

Regarding the method of publication, the transparency report must be posted in a manner that ensures accessibility for users, such as on the main page or in the notice section of the service provider’s website. Furthermore, regarding the contents of the transparency report, in addition to the items already specified by the Amendment (such as average daily number of users, revenue, type of business, number of reports and cases handled along with details of actions taken, number of appeals processed and their outcomes, and details of orders and recommendations received from government agencies), the Draft Enforcement Decree stipulates that the report must also include:

(i)	The details of the self-regulatory operational policies to be established by large-scale information and communications service providers; and

(ii)	The details of the procedures implemented to prevent the dissemination of disinformation.

As the Draft Enforcement Decree continues to be updated to give more concrete forms to the obligations of large-scale information and communications service providers under the Amended Network Act, we recommend closely monitoring the progress of the Draft Enforcement Decree and related developments, while conducting internal reviews and preparations for compliance, especially in anticipation of any future increase in the number of users.

[Korean Version]

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