South Korea is enforcing a law that allows courts to award punitive damages up to five times proven losses and to fine repeat offenders up to 1 billion won ($656K) for spreading false information online.The statute requires platforms with more than 1 million daily users, including Naver, Kakao, Google and Meta, to set up reporting and removal systems and to publish transparency reports every six months, while the Korea Media and Communications Commission says private actors will handle enforcement and public-interest reporting is exempt.Journalists and civil liberties groups and the
People Power Party warn that vague wording and broad judicial discretion will chill investigative reporting, a risk sharpened by a post-2024 surge of fake news and the impeachment and life sentence of former President
Yoon Suk Yeol.