Starting from yesterday, major Korean portals Naver and Daum have begun disallowing anonymous comments on their sites. Other, smaller sites will follow suit in a month or so. Read about it here (Korean).

This is a big change in Korean Internet culture. The new policy is aimed at cutting down on the increasing number of defamatory comments left by people who hide behind anonymity. We've all heard about defamatory comments leading to lawsuits and even suicides.

Requiring you to register with your "citizen number" and stamping every word you write with your name will definitely reduce the number of demeaning remarks (and maybe even comment-spam!), but it will also discourage user participation in general and, to a degree, limit freedom of speech.

What if you have some emotional problems and you want some advice from your online peers? If you have to tell the entire world who you really are, you're less likely to speak up. Or, maybe you want to say something and have it considered for the view it expresses in itself - strong political or religious views, for example - without the entire neighborhood or parish knowing about it.

The big question is, what happens when search engines collect data by commenter names? One can imagine a situation where a cyber-stalker tracks down all of your comments and the websites they belong to. It's like following your footsteps and eavesdropping on every word. Or your boss finds questionable websites you frequent and uses that information in ways that can hurt your career.

Because Korea is a small, homogeneous country where everybody knows everybody, people have sometimes found solace and freedom in anonymity when they go online. But with all good things, there are those who abuse that freedom for unseemly purposes, and now the irresponsible behavior of some has led to a nationwide "soft" censorship. Now more than ever, people will have to decide between privacy and participation, between silence and speech.