Recently, more and more people are suffering from fake news. Many celebrities are directly explaining the contents of provocative titles and articles, ranging from divorce to infidelity and death rumors, as the entertainment industry is increasingly confusing to the public. The production of such fake news is not limited to the content related to the entertainment industry. Fake news with unclear sources in various fields such as politics, society, culture, and health has raised concerns that it will be a major social problem.
  Fake news has increased explosively in recent years, and some say that this is why Internet traffic and mobile app usage have increased worldwide due to social distancing caused by COVID-19. According to the government, as of 2022, there were more than 3,000 fake COVID-19 news stories and false information that the government asked various Internet portal sites and communities to delete. 
  The widespread use of generative AI such as ChatGPT is also one of the factors affecting the mass production of fake news. Overseas, sites that rely on generative AI to mass-produce fake news have already increased over the past several years. This is often referred to as a Pink Slime site. The term Pink Slime, which originally meant low-quality meat made by mixing beef by-products and chemicals, refers to a site that mass-produces and spreads politically biased quality fake news without proper reporting. For example, there are more than 1,000 pink slime sites run by a U.S. media company called Metric Media.
  It is also a big problem that distorts the content without properly understanding the background knowledge or facts and distributing fake news through various platforms such as YouTube, news, and SNS. On July 22, the Korea Press Foundation (KPF)’s report on ‘Rising Fake Information Concerns and Increasing Use of YouTube News’ surveyed the use of digital news in major countries around the world from Jan. 10 to Feb. 20 of this year (93,895 worldwide, 2,003 in Korea). 53% of Korean respondents said they watch news on YouTube, while the other 46 countries’ average is 30%. As for the authenticity of the information encountered on YouTube, 66% of Korean respondents were concerned that it may not be true. The global average is 56%.
  Experts note that the spread of fake news is greatly affected by the growth of new media such as YouTube. Professor Yul Shin of the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at Myongji University, said, “It is true that the new media makes up for the lack of legacy media.” adding, “There is a side effect that makes us believe the information that is in the state before judging whether it is true.” YouTube has a problem in that it makes it difficult for users to access various information through a ‘Filter Bubble’ that intensively shows only similar content to those seen so far through algorithms. Therefore, people have no choice but to access biased news in one direction through YouTube, which leads to a situation where they cannot accept other opinions.
  Fake news is still in circulation, but there needs to be more institutional mechanisms to sanction it. According to the current Press Arbitration Act and Broadcasting Act, YouTube and one-person media are not classified as broadcasting. Relief is impossible through correction and counterargument reports, and it is possible to sue under criminal law, such as defamation and insult, but if false information spreads during the prolonged lawsuit, it may be difficult to recover the damage. On the other hand, Germany enacted the “NetzDG” in 2017 to allow illegal content to be reported and platform operators to block it within 24 hours. France also created the ‘Law to Combat False Information’ in 2018. It allowed it to stop false information spread on online platforms during the three months before the election through court orders. Currently, the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea is pending a revision to the ‘Act on Press Arbitration and Damage Remedies’, which adds new media content as a subject of dispute mediation and arbitration according to reports. However, as it is limited to content created by media companies, there is still a limit to preventing damage by other online platforms such as YouTube.
  Prof. Rhee June Woong of the Department of Communication (Seoul National University) said “We can make laws to regulate YouTubers, but if that happens, would not it be like suppressing the media like China? We need to spend money properly to provide more fun and great content to citizens.”