Naver, Kakao’s sports news portals suspend comment function

Naver and Kakao, the nation’s top portals that already halted service allowing users to make comments on their portals, are set to provisionally suspend the online comment service on their sports pages as well. They are apparently taking the measure after it was made public that the late volleyball player Goh Yoo-min chose to take her own life because she was often attacked through malign comments by web users.

Naver said Friday that it will stop its comment function on the sports news page within this month, and will prepare separate measures for other areas of services including video steaming service. However, the portal will continue to run “Live Talk,” for ongoing sports games, which is designed to allow users to send messages to the teams and players the users cheer for.

Naver is applying “AI Clean Bot 2.0” technology that filters out malignant comments and messages including abusive language on its Live Talk service. The portal is also considering introducing “AI Clean Bot 2.0” on Naver TV, and enabling the channel’s managers to set “on or off” its online comment service.

Kakao has also temporarily discontinued comment service on its sports news page on Friday. The company will also come up with a plan for comment service to fully fulfill its original purpose. The company plans to advance its technology for filtering out abusive or derogative language or slangs, which was introduced in 2017, and further strengthen the system allowing comment service users to report or crack down on those making malign comments.


Keun-Hyung Yoo noel@donga.com