Asia
South Korea
South Korea's KCC-enforced Network Act, expanded by the controversial July-2026 false-information amendment, mandates semiannual content-moderation transparency reports for eight designated large platforms but has no ad-library, researcher-access, risk-assessment, audit or recommender-transparency requirements.
Scored against the DSA
Each obligation the DSA imposes on very large platforms, and whether South Korea’s law requires the same. Cells cover DSA-style, user-protective transparency and accountability only.
- Required by law
- Partial / emerging
- No such obligation
- Undetermined
Transparency
Public ad libraryDSA Art. 39
No public ad-library; Korea has pursued AI-ad labelling instead.
Transparency reportsDSA Art. 15 / 24 / 42
Designated platforms (over 1M daily users; 8 designated July 2026) must publish semiannual transparency reports.
Source ↗Researcher data accessDSA Art. 40
No DSA Art. 40 analogue found.
Reach disclosureDSA Art. 24(2)
The mandatory transparency report must include daily-average user numbers, but bundled inside the moderation report rather than a standalone reach mandate.
Source ↗
Accountability
Systemic risk assessmentDSA Art. 34–35
No systemic or child-safety risk-assessment mandate; 2021 digital-sex-crime rules require specific technical measures, not an assessment.
Independent auditDSA Art. 37
No external compliance-audit mandate; the KCC investigates directly.
Algorithmic transparencyDSA Art. 27 / 38
No in-force recommender-transparency or chronological-feed mandate; handled via portal self-regulation.
Regulator + penaltiesDSA Art. 49–52, 74
KCC: Network Act admin fines plus a surcharge up to KRW 1bn for repeat illegal/false-info distribution; app-store fines up to 3% of Korean revenue under the TBA.
Source ↗
Child protection
No profiling ads to minorsDSA Art. 26(3) / 28
No ad-targeting ban for minors; PIPA requires parental consent to process under-14 data (adjacent, not an ad ban).
Age assuranceBeyond the DSA
The Juvenile Protection Act requires adult/age verification to access youth-harmful media; no general social-media age-assurance mandate.
Source ↗Child-safety duty of careDSA Art. 28
The Juvenile Protection Act imposes youth-harmful-media duties and a 2021 amendment obliges large providers to take technical measures against illegal sexual content; no DSA-style child risk assessment.
Source ↗
Compare every jurisdiction
South Korea is one of 30 non-EU jurisdictions we scored against the DSA. See them all side by side.