Pres. Lee Blasts Web Abuse at OECD Meeting

President Lee Myung-bak said yesterday that the spread of spam mail, lies and incorrect information that exploits the anonymity of the Internet threatens rational thinking and trust.

At the opening ceremony of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s ministerial meeting on the future of the Internet economy in Seoul, he said, “More people are suffering from computer viruses, hacking, cyber terrorism and leaks of private information.”

“As the Internet has allowed society to share information and knowledge, individual creativity has dramatically increased. I believe that the Internet will contribute to the resolution of pending global issues such as aging and climate change.”

He also said, “The Internet, however, faces new obstacles and challenges. It is most urgent to deal with the problem of trust. The power of the Web could turn into poison instead of medicine if trust is destroyed.”

“The power of the Internet in Web powerhouse Korea has exploded in all areas such as politics, economy, society and culture in Korea. We’re seeing that this power significantly contributes to raising quality of life when it works positively, but it can also harm the people if working in a negative way.”

To end tomorrow, the OECD meeting is expecting 2,500 global leaders to attend, including 48 government representatives from 42 nations, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria and Google Vice President Vinton Cerf.