Regulating Election Campaigns in Cyberspace
The Korean National Election Commission (NEC) announced yesterday that it will revise its election law so that any campaign - related materials about particular candidates can be freely uploaded on the internet both in legal campaign periods and odd times.
Last election in United States, we have had the closest election result in history, and lots of people spoke up on how we should adapt to a new voting system, or come up with the more precise voting way so that more people could get involved in voting. In Florida, there was a flaw in one of the election system, so it brought out much voices in the country. Some people actually suggested in online voting since many people are committed to lots of things online.
People nowadays shop online, pay bills online, and even have their business meeting though online. From the facts, now more than 50 percent of people that own computers at home in United States have internet also. However, about 2 weeks ago, I posted a blog about security technologies on internet. Can we trust online election? and even online election campaigning?
Currently, postings or video clips containing simple ideas about particular candidates or parties are allowed online prior to the campaign period, and those considered to be attempts to influence elections through repeated postings on portal sites could face punishment. However, my question is this? Can they really regulate those attempts influence elections through repeated postings on portal sites? Can they stop the malicious sites that imitate those campaigning sites and try to bring down the candidates?
I believe that things that are very important as voting should be never done online. Professors want hard copies of homeworks for a reason. People trust the newspaper more than online articles for a reason. We just can't trust some stuff online. Especially, something like election could change the whole state of one country. Can we trust the internet sites to do the job for us? to replace the paper voting? However, I believe that online election campaigning is okay as long as campaign associates know the maliciousness of the internet.
An NEC official said, "we made the decision because we believe voters' freedom of expression should be broadly guaranteed and internet campaigns do not cost much." This is true. It will save tons of money for the campaign committee, and some people could be more influenced by the internet ads and campaigns rather than reading from the newspapers. This should be allowable as long as they know the consequences of posting and putting themselves online.
Mike
Sources:
Regulating Election Campaigns in Cyberspace
PUBLISHED: February 14, 2007
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=050000&biid=2007021452078
No comments:
Post a Comment