The National Election Commission will build a network with the relevant organizations and platform companies, and respond together in preventing publication of false information and spread of slanders for the 20th presidential election and the 8th nationwide simultaneous local elections in 2022.

The NEC held a planning meeting together with the 16 relevant organizations and people from the institutions, and discussed to come up with the collaborative measures in responding to publication of false information and slanders at Gwacheon Government Complex on November 9.

The organizations which attended the meeting said that publication of false information and slanders would become major issues in two big elections this time as the online election campaign is increasing and the verification process of the candidates is going into a full scale in the midst of cultural spread of non-face-to-face. Therefore, they agreed upon the idea that the relevant organizations will take active roles in fostering sound electoral culture while

protecting freedom of the political expressions.

In addition, they decided to heighten effectiveness of the regulations through close cooperation among the relative institutions and organizations by engaging in activities of prevention, activation of reporting by people, prompt responses, and self-correcting effort.

The main items that the election commissions requested cooperation for from each organization are:

▲ (for every organization) Establish a joint response and a cooperative system to prevent publication of false information and spread of slanders

▲ (for Supreme Prosecutor’s Office and National Police Agency) Take prompt measures in responding to reported cases and request for investigation of the cases related with publication of false information, and enforce strict measures against election offenders

▲ (for organizations of journalism) Check facts and media coverage to create the environment for fair elections

▲ (for portals and social media companies) Take prompt measures and respond upon request for deletion of violated postings and submission of the communications data, etc.

The NEC said that it will establish eight ‘special task force teams to respond to false information and slanders’ of 600 people nationwide, and plan to take prompt and accurate measures by obtaining evident materials through multi-faceted monitoring and scientific investigative methods.