By Jun Ji-hye



Naver has come under fire for removing a number of "relevant search words" related to family members running conglomerates on its search engine last year without going through proper procedures.



According to a report issued by the Korea Internet Self-governance Organization (KISO), Tuesday, the firm, operating the nation's most widely used portal website, deleted certain keywords related to rumors of the private life of a conglomerate chairman. The removal was made on the firm's self judgment that such words could defame a chairman's reputation.



But the KISO report said, "It was an excessive measure that did not go through proper procedures."



The KISO issued the report after verifying keywords searched on portals during the first half of 2017.



Naver also removed relevant search words that compared Cho Hyun-ah, the former Korean Air vice president, and other celebrities on the request of Cho.



Naver said it removed them as they included curse words and slang, which caused inconvenience to users and lowered the quality of its service.



But the KISO report said, "The explanation is not seen as a valid reason."



Cho has been the subject of public criticism since her "rage" over the way nuts were served to her delayed a flight in December 2014. She was also questioned by the Korea Immigration Service office in May for illegally hiring domestic helpers from the Philippines.



The KISO said Naver removed a total of 48,532 relevant search words on its self judgment.



Among them included those related to the location of ousted President Park Geun-hye's private residence and the home address of special counsel Park Young-soo.



The former president was removed from office in March last year over the massive corruption and influence-peddling scandal involving her close confidant, Choi Soon-sil, and the special counsel was in charge of investigating the incident at the time.



The KISO said Naver's removal of search words related to the house locations of the two were appropriate as such information was never disclosed through the media.



The KISO was started in 2009 to self-regulate internet service providers. It has seven member companies including Naver and SK Communications.

