New ‘hate music’ bill leaves Korean culture & arts groups with justifiable censorship fears

One story of significance that I haven’t seen mentioned much in the K-pop circles is that there’s a proposed bill in South Korea right now that’s being sold to the public as a way to curb the propagation of so-called ‘hate music’ to minors via a controversial pre-screening process. “The amendment to the Music Industry Promotion Act was submitted last week by Rep. Kim Hyun and nine other lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea. The bill would require music distributors to pre-screen all tracks to determine whether they contain content harmful to minors before release. If any song is judged harmful and its creator is under 19, the distributor must block the track from release altogether. If the artist is an adult, the distributor must notify them that the track may be designated harmful to youth in advance, which would restrict it to adult listeners only.“ The aforementioned representative framed it as an attempt to curb hate speech, “Artistic freedom must be respected, but we cannot stand by and do nothing while hate- or crime-promoting songs are distributed online freely, harming peer communities, classrooms and ultimately society as a whole. … Because culture and the art...