소셜네트워크서비스(social network service)가 선거에 미치는 영향과 선거법상 규제 : 미국과 캐나다를 중심으로

Social network site (social network service in Korea, SNS), gaining popularity among people, particularly young generation, looks to have influenced public elections in the real world. This thesis studies researches regarding the impact of SNS and related provisions and practices under America and Canada election law. According to the researches in the United States, although it attracts SNS users to have interests in candidates and issues of election, its effectiveness in leading the users to vote for a candidate turned out to be still less than expected. On the other hand, election laws in the U.S. and Canada have taken similar approaches. Election law in the U.S., after taking historical flip-over, has taken expression on SNS as free speech protected under the 1st amendment unless the expression was made in exchange of money. Canadian election law has taken the approach that expression on SNS should be regulated as election advertisement if its expense is paid by a third party. A prohibition provision of the Canadian law where vote result should not be reveled on the election day applies directly to expression on SNS. On the whole, both in the U.S. and Canada, election law treats expression on SNS as advertisement, and requires total expense and financial support to be with disclosure sentence disclosed to the public and to be reported to a related election committee. It is noteworthy that expression on SNS has been regulated not directly but indirectly under financial regulation regarding political advertisement.