Sports Kyunghyang Direct Interview | Law Firm Jonjae Managing Partner Attorney Noh Jong-eon

Law Firm Jonjae Managing Partner Attorney Noh Jong-eon files National Assembly legislative petition for the 'Cyberwrecker Prevention Act'

Hello. This is Law Firm Jonjae.

At Sports Kyunghyang, Managing Partner Attorney Noh Jong-eon of Law Firm Jonjae was directly interviewed about the background and purpose behind filing a National Assembly legislative petition for the 'Cyberwrecker Prevention Act' (an amendment to the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, etc.).

Another legislative movement after the Goo Hara Act

After leading the legislative petition for the 'Goo Hara Act' (an amendment to the Civil Act), Attorney Noh Jong-eon, together with Attorney Lee Go-eun of Law Firm Ongan, filed a National Assembly legislative petition for the 'Cyberwrecker Prevention Act'. Attorney Noh Jong-eon previously engaged in legal action with broadcaster Park Soo-hong and YouTuber Entertainment Bureau Chief (the late Kim Yong-ho), and more recently represented Heo Woong's former girlfriend, A, while also facing the damage caused by YouTuber Karacula (Lee Se-uk)'s fabrication of false materials.

Attorney Noh Jong-eon said, "The spread of fake news by cyberwreckers has become increasingly serious recently," and added, "They use the distribution of fake news as a weapon to extort and are making enormous profits from it. We judged that we could no longer stand by such behavior, so we filed the national petition."

A blind spot in the legal system — no punishment provisions and no mechanism to recover profits

Attorney Noh Jong-eon pointed out that because YouTube is a lower-tier platform under U.S. Google, reports and sanctions when damage occurs are slow and minimal. Regarding the reality in which years pass without certainty that the perpetrator will even be punished, he diagnosed that "all of this is due to the lack of clear punishment provisions for cyberwreckers and the weakness of the related legal system."

The essence of the Cyberwrecker Prevention Act — confiscation of criminal proceeds

The core of this legislative petition is the confiscation of criminal proceeds earned by YouTubers who make money through fake news. The idea is to impose punitive damages on all profits obtained by cyberwreckers through producing fake news (channel revenue, advertising revenue, and profits gained through extortion), and to establish a system in which those profits are used to recover victims' losses or are entirely confiscated and collected by the state.

Attorney Noh Jong-eon emphasized, "There are limits to existing criminal punishment or compensation-level responses alone, and only fundamentally blocking the profits generated by the spread of fake news can be an effective measure to prevent damage."

Public consensus

The National Assembly legislative petition for the 'Cyberwrecker Prevention Act' quickly gathered support after it was introduced. This is the result of public concern over cyberwreckers such as Karacula, Gujeyok, Jeongukjin, Ppeokga, and Taldeok Suyongso, brought about by events such as the Tzuyang extortion case. If 50,000 people agree within 30 days, the petition will be submitted as a bill to the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee.