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Samsung Forbids LGBT Apps in Korea

  • 김태성
  • 입력 2015.07.28 12:46
  • 수정 2015.07.29 07:14
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Citing that they're contrary to "[Korean] moral values or laws," Samsung Electronics has forbidden LGBT apps to be carried on Samsung Apps, its mobile app store that's a default feature on Samsung smartphones in Korea.

Hornet, a U.S. gay dating app, told BuzzFeed that its app was rejected by Samsung based on the company's "Application Screening Result Report." According to a 2013 statement, Samsung declined the app approval, citing conflict with "local moral values or laws of the subject country."

Per Samsung's 2013 memo, Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Jordan, as well as Korea, China, Japan, the U.S., Norway and even Denmark were among the countries to be excluded for LGBT content.

Huffington Post Korea, in an attempt to ascertain the criteria for such censorship, called Samsung Korea for response but was unable to get through. However, Kelly Yeo, spokesperson for Samsung Electronics U.S., pointed out to BuzzFeed that the censorship decision did not depend on "the subject country's 'local moral values or laws' but rather on 'local laws and customs.'" She also added that Samsung is "continuing to update [their] policies."

Samsung's message to Hornet basically means it reserves the right to forbid any apps with illicit content, but the point is, LGBT apps are not illegal, says attorney Park Ji-hwan, a member of non-profit organization OpenNet. "Since the abolishment of the adultery law, there's been no basis [in Korea] for rejecting even married people dating sites like Ashley Madison," he said. "Homosexuality is not an act punishable by law, and therefore it's hard to argue that people chatting using such an app are engaged in illegal activities."

It's likely that Samsung included the mention of "local customs" in order to protect itself from concerns like these. However, there are already a few LGBT apps on the Samsung Apps store, so it's difficult to gauge how serious the company is about abiding by its own rules. As can be seen below, there's already an app called "Cherries Lesbian and Gay Dating Chat."

What's more, Samsung's application of its standards differ by country. According to BuzzFeed Hornet's CEO pushed and pulled for nearly four years until Hornet was finally allowed to be carried on the Samsung Apps store in the U.S. and Japan, among others. However, Hornet is still inaccessible in Korea, Iceland, and Syria, for example, and it's also not allowed in Argentina, a country that legalized same-sex marriage way back in 2010.

The word "sex" typed in Korean reveals no related results.

Samsung has also manipulated search term functions for its app store. Typing "sex" or "gay" in Korean yields no results, but when the same is done in English, related apps pop up. Because such words in local languages are blocked, getting approval on apps for the Samsung App store could be a wasted effort.

But it's not just Samsung. Even Google Korea has come under fire for blocking apps, most famously for canceling the very popular LGBT app, Jack’d, which had 5 million+ members. Google's spokesperson explained, "We can’t provide comment on specific apps on Google Play." Other LGBT apps, however, do show up on Google Play, so it's more likely that Google had specific problems with this particular app.

Mobile LGBT app Jack'd doesn't show up on Korea's Google Playstore

The fact remains: Even if Google and Samsung block individual apps, effectiveness is limited. Using a VPN that grants access via an IP address from another country, one can easily circumvent this kind of barrier. BuzzFeed wrote that there were 500,000 Koreans who accessed Jack'd using just such a method.

There are also other ways. Using Korea's top portal, Naver, one can search "Jack'd" in Korean to bypass the app stores altogether and gain access to an APK file to download on a smartphone. Of course, no one can vouchsafe their security, so caution is definitely recommended.

This post has been translated from Korean

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