Real-name system

A real-name system is a system in which when a user who wants to register an account on a blog, website or bulletin board system, is required to offer identification credentials including their legal name to the network service centre. One may use an on-line pseudonym, however, the person's real identity would be available if rules or laws are broken.

South Korea is the first country to put the real-name system into practice. Since June 28, 2009, thirty-five Korean websites have implemented a name-registration system pursuant to the newly amended Information and Communications Network Act of Korea. It was enacted after the suicide of Choi Jin-sil which was said to be related to malicious comments about her on Internet bulletin boards. The new rule is aimed at minimizing the amount of negative information to make netizens responsible for their behavior on the Internet.

South Koreans have been familiar with the real-name system. Since the mid-1990s, doing real property transactions and financial transactions must be performed under a real name following relevant laws. The real-name system in real property transactions and financial transactions is believed to contribute to the sound economic order of the nation.

On August 23, 2012, however, the Constitutional Court of Korea ruled unanimously that the real-name requirements imposed on big portal service providers by a relevant law is unconstitutional, citing such provision's violation of freedom of speech in cyberspace.

As a result, the so-called "Choi Jin-sil Law", under the deceased celebrity's name, is to be discarded. Until then, websites with more than 100 thousand visitors per day required users to authenticate their identities by entering their ID numbers when they used portals or other sites.

The Constitutional Court said,

The system does not seem to have been beneficial to the public. Despite the enforcement of the system, the number of illegal or malicious postings online has not decreased. Instead, users moved to foreign Websites and the system became discriminatory against domestic operators. It also prevented foreigners who didn’t have a resident registration number here from expressing their opinions online.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the public voice started to agree on the abolishment of a name-registration system because of the severe problem caused by information leakage. Now the official response from the administration is that they will supplement the certain regulations of personal information on the Internet.

...
Wikipedia