Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon noted on the 18th during a meeting of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee that they are aware of the issue regarding the surge in abnormal traffic related to comments and will implement technical measures soon.
On that day, CEO Choi responded to questions regarding Naver news and addressed the call from Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Hwang Jeong-a for measures to prevent 'geolocation tagging.'
Lawmaker Hwang said, "I am worried that democracy and the election will be compromised during the presidential election period," and asked about the preparations for measures to prevent opinion manipulation that she requested during the previous committee's visit to Naver.
In response, CEO Choi stated, "If abnormal traffic surges occur, we will immediately notify the media and post a notice for users," adding, "I don't know the exact date, but it will start before the 30th of this month."
Additionally, she added, "When activities that artificially increase engagement occur, we will notify media outlets and have already implemented measures to arrange comments in reverse chronological order instead of by engagement score."
On this day, committee members also questioned Naver about copyright infringement issues arising from the use of media news data in AI training. Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Hoon-ki mentioned that Naver holds 6,500 times more Korean data than its overseas competitors and noted that news content is crucial data for AI, bringing up copyright lawsuits from broadcasters and content providers.
CEO Choi stated, "There was a clause allowing the use of news content for AI training, but it has now been amended, and news data will not be used for training," and added, "Recently, we are signing agreements with media companies regarding the use of AI technology."
Lawmaker Lee Hae-min from the Rebuilding Korea Party raised concerns about Naver's AI service 'Hyperclova X' learning news from media companies without consent since 2023, asserting that "even despite the amendment of terms, there is a potential for an unfair contract lacking substantive consent." CEO Choi replied, "We will address the issue through more concrete agreements in the future."