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Korea's Internet Self-Regulatory Body Introduces New Guidelines for Webtoons, Web Novels

The Korea Internet Self-Governance Organization (KISO) announced on December 12 that it has established new self-regulatory guidelines for story-based digital content, including webtoons and web novels.

KISO is a non-governmental, industry-led self-regulatory body comprising major Korean internet and platform companies. It was created to promote responsible content governance while avoiding direct government regulation, with an emphasis on protecting freedom of expression through voluntary industry standards.

The newly introduced "Story-Based Content Self-Regulation Guidelines" outline standards and review procedures for identifying hate speech and inappropriate expressions within narrative content. The guidelines are built on four core principles: respect for creators' freedom of expression, prevention of harm caused by hate speech, expanded voluntary participation by creators and users, and the pursuit of social diversity.

To assess whether content constitutes hate speech, the guidelines present specific evaluation factors, including narrative context, likelihood of serious misunderstanding, balance of expression, tolerance within the expression, and the overall weight or proportion of problematic content within a work.

With the adoption of these guidelines, major platforms such as Naver WEBTOON and Kakao Entertainment will be able to take measures—including content revisions or suspension of publication—when content is deemed to contain hate speech, based on KISO's review decisions.

Hyun-kyung Kim, chair of KISO's Special Committee on Story-Based Content and a professor at Seoul National University of Science and Technology's Graduate School of IT Policy, said the guidelines were designed to respect creative freedom while providing review standards that can be clearly explained and accepted by users. She emphasized that KISO's founding purpose is to safeguard freedom of expression through self-regulation rather than public enforcement.

The move reflects growing efforts within Korea's digital content industry to balance creative freedom with social responsibility as webtoons and web novels continue to expand their cultural and global influence.

Source: KISO's press release