Naver Webtoon Revises Comment Policy Following Backlash Over Author Identities
Change also retroactively applied to comments posted before June, exposing authors' nicknames on older posts
Naver WEBTOON has recently made changes to its comment system after receiving criticism for disclosing authors' nicknames in previous comments, which resulted in allegations of opinion manipulation.
The platform recently updated its comment display format from showing just ID numbers to showing nicknames along with ID numbers. This change aimed to promote more direct communication between readers and authors. However, this update also affected older comments by revealing authors' nicknames that were previously hidden.
It caused debate among people when they found out that certain creators who defended their own work against criticism in previous posts were actually the ones making those posts. Additionally, it was revealed that other individuals minimized industry problems like tracing-copying art from other comics-while pretending to be impartial. These discoveries were made after screenshots of these comments were widely shared, leading to criticism of the authors involved.
Naver WEBTOON made changes in July by giving authors the ability to choose whether their nicknames would be visible. Additionally, the company removed nickname visibility from comments that were posted prior to June.
According to a representative of Naver WEBTOON, the organization frequently considers input from both authors and readers, and decided that preserving the initial guidelines for older comments was more suitable.
Source: Chosun Economy ( link ) (Kang-han Kim)
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