Agora to Disclose IP Addresses

Daum, the nation’s second largest Internet portal site, has presented a reform plan to improve its operation of Agora, the biggest online discussion site, which has been criticized as a hot bed for violent anti-government protests.

To prevent bulletin boards from being plastered with the same writings, block spam posts and prohibit netizens from putting up posts using others’ identities, part of the IP addresses of postings and replies will be disclosed. In addition, Agora’s discussion system will undergo some changes to make users easily discern who are for or against certain issues, according to Daum Friday.

Through Agora’s notice board, the company announced that, beginning July 7, three of the four IP address units of all the postings will be made public.

The company expects that the disclosure of IP addresses in the form of “123.456.***.789” will effectively prevent a small number of netizens from distorting and manipulating “Internet opinion.”

According to Metrics, an Internet market research firm, among 67,620 Agora users who visited the site from April 1 to June 18, some 2,205 users, or 3.3 percent, were responsible for nearly half of the total postings, which is 373,479 out of 746,993. And top 10 users put up 21,810 posts.

Daum will also monitor real-time those users who put up a large number of posts within 24 hours and if their writings are deemed inappropriate, the company will either give them some restrictions or suspend their IDs.

To deal with the criticism that Agora is a forum that does not allow pro and con discussions, it will set up a new corner entitled “Real-time Debate,” where conflicting ideas will be displayed real-time in a separate section.

Industry watchers said that Daum, facing mounting calls to take responsibilities for illicit postings as an administrator of the site, has come up with its own measures to divert those criticisms.

jhk85@donga.com