Jung Jin-Wook, chairman of The Ethics Council on Internet and profession of Sungkyunkwan University

On September 8, Jung Jin-Wook, chairman of The Ethics Council on Internet, had an interview with AsiaToday and said, "Naver, the search market-dominating portal, has powerful influence more than other traditional media. However, Naver has very poor corporate ethics. The legislation to regulate Naver, which has little internet ethics, is urgent."

Chairman Jung said, "If newspapers or books are like a gun, internet is like a nuclear bomb. If something spreads on the internet, the consequences may grow out of hand."

He explained that Naver, which controls around 80 percent of the local online search market, has greater influence than any other online media, and criticized, "You must follow strict procedures if you want to deal with dangerous weapons. But Naver gave up ethics and responsibilities and is busy hiding behind the law."

Chairman Jung gave an example of Naver's weak corporate ethics, where a Naver-selected power blogger held group shopping events and took the commission for the sale. Thousands of customers who purchased the product were financially and mentally devastated to know that there was a stability problem on the product. By then, Naver avoided responsibility and claimed, "We didn't run the blog by ourselves. We just offered a place for them to run."

Jung pointed out, "This case clearly shows Naver's poor corporate ethics. Naver has always been blaming someone else. It shows how Naver's management operate the company."