Kakao is working with experts from academia and related organizations to produce a ‘coding book’ to respond to hate speech.
A coding book is a guidebook containing definitions, principles, and judgment standards that can be used as a reference when converting collected data into an analyzable form, and helps identify hate speech within technologies and services. This project is part of ESG management and to fulfill social responsibility as a digital company, and is scheduled to be completed in the first half of next year.
This project is an extension of the ‘Kakao Principles for Eradicating Hate Speech’ established in January 2021. Kakao established the relevant principles with the National Human Rights Commission, the Korean Press Law Society, and the Media Advisory Committee for about a year starting in January 2020, and published a green paper containing the related discussion process. It is the first domestic company to establish stipulated principles for responding to hate speech, and has been applied to the operation of major services such as emoticons and advertisements.
A research team led by the Korea Press Law Association participates in the production of the coding book, and the Kakao Advisory Group on Eradication of Hate Speech regularly supervises and reviews the research process. The advisory group includes the director Jin-ah Bae, a professor in the Department of Film and Communication at Kongju National University, Soo-ah Kim, a professor in the Department of Journalism and Information at Seoul National University, Young-seop Shim, a professor in the Department of Media, Image and Public Relations at Kyung Hee Cyber University, Hee-jung Yoo, a curator in the Department of Language and Information at the National Institute of the Korean Language, and Dr. Seung-hyun Lee of the Law Research Institute of Yonsei University.
In particular, it has special meaning in that it is promoted independently by forming an external research team with expertise and goes through a separate advisory process. As hate speech in the digital space is recognized as an issue requiring in-depth social discussion and consensus building, it is expected that the results of this coding book production project will have a high level of reliability and universality.
Kakao plans to apply the completed coding book to AI technology to improve the health of online content and comment spaces, such as ‘Safebot’ applied to portal Daum. The plan is to build learning data to identify hate speech and sequentially apply it to actual services. In addition, we decided to make the coding book public so that not only Kakao’s technology and services, but also external companies and organizations can freely use it.
Kim Dae-won, head of Kakao’s human rights and technical ethics team, said, “Digital safety is a basic element of user human rights protection, and Kakao wants to actively take the lead in respecting human rights and fulfilling social responsibilities unique to digital companies.” He added, “We will continue to take the lead in society, academia, and related organizations.” “We will do our best to ensure that the digital space and ecosystem remain healthy through cooperation with various stakeholders.”
Meanwhile, Kakao has continued to make efforts to strengthen its technology, services, and policies to respond to hate speech in the digital space. Recently, we have prepared a ‘KakaoTalk Hello Guide’ to help users use KakaoTalk safely.
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
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