South Korea's Internet community is in shock. Renowned Internet bloggers and writers are deleting their writings and going underground. The prosecution's arrest of the influential Internet pundit “Park,” who is best known by his Internet alias “Minerva,” seems to be having an immediate impact on cyberspace. Still, the public appears divided over whether the prosecution is actually attempting to control the Internet using age-old regulations and, if so, whether it will succeed, because so much of what is posted to the Internet is done via a pseudonym.
The Internet is supposed to be a space where free participation is guaranteed. Unlike in-person forums led by experts, the Internet gives ordinary people a chance to offer opinions and create their own content. The Internet created an environment in which success or failure hinged on the quality of the content being posted, which helped usher in the era of user created content.
“Technically speaking, there is no difference between Daum's Agora debate section and mini homepages. If an ordinary netizen is punished for what he posted in cyberspace just because it is not correct, it will threaten the Internet's ecosystem,” said Kang Jang-mook, a professor at Sejong University. “At a time when we have to work hard to develop the Internet with better software and content, the arrest of Minerva could empty out cyberspace.”
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