민주주의와 인터넷 공론장 ― 미디어 플랫폼 규제를 중심으로 ―

Democracy is in crisis in Korea. Political polarization on the internet makes the crisis worse. It would be not easy to overcome the crisis without reducing extreme polarization. This paper reviews how the internet as a public sphere has weakened democracy and suggests how to rebuild the public sphere on the internet. It should be the first step to differentiate specific regulations on a few mega internet platforms from general regulations on the internet. In Korea there has been a myth that the internet should not be regulated as the regulation is likely to infringe the freedom of speech. The Constitutional Court of Korea emphasized in the case on the ban on subversive communication on the internet on June 27, 2002 that “regulating expression on the internet ... would pose immense obstacle to the advancement of freedom of expression.” The case has been repeatedly cited in the arguments against regulations on the internet services companies. However, considering realities that the internet is controlled by only a few mega companies which, despite of filter bubble and echo chamber effects on their owe media platforms, do not care about robust and diverse public spheres, it is time to put a high pressure on them to take social and legal responsibilities by enacting new laws. In my opinion, content moderation by mega media platforms should be done not for their commercial interests but for the public interest, standards of content moderation should be open to criticism and due process of law should be applied to any complaint of content moderation. However, enacting regulations based upon harmful contents such as fake news and hate speech should be done after specific and imminent dangers to public spheres be identified.