South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) has revealed its plans of shifting away from imposing traditional video game laws for new the new experiences made possible by the metaverse. Rather, the ministry has decided that it will issue new guidelines for incentivizing the ecosystem’s growth.
The country’s interest in amassing both Web3 and metaverse ecosystems is evidenced by its $200 million investment for the creation of its very own in-house metaverse.
In line with this effort, the MSIT has identified that by imposing older existing regulations aimed at curtailing the amount of time youngsters spent playing videogames and the rise of online gambling, such measures would only serve as a deterrent to the new ecosystem’s growth.
New world – new rules
During its first meeting of the National Data Policy committee, MSIT stated, “We will not make the mistake of regulating a new service with existing law.” Although, talks about designating the metaverse as a video game are still on the table.
The MSIT decided that new industries such as the metaverse, autonomous driving and OTT streaming platforms demand new regulations. Speaking about the metaverse, MSIT raised concerns about delaying industrial growth due to a lack of legal and institutional basis.
A rough translation of the press release reads: “Establish guidelines for classification of game products and metaverses for rational and consistent regulation and support for enactment of related laws (enactment of special metaverse laws, etc.)”
On September 1st, members of the National Assembly gave their support to an official proposal for the enactment of the Metaverse Industry Promotion Act in order to support the Web3 industry.
While steadily supporting the growth of new technologies, South Korea’s authorities also continue to crack down on individuals running the Terra ecosystem.
The country’s prosecutors claim that co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, allegedly defrauded investors by issuing Luna Classic (LUNC) and TerraUSd Classic (USTC) without notifying them of the danger that the price of both could plummet together
South Korean prosecutors claim that Do Kwon, the co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, allegedly defrauded investors by issuing Luna Classic (LUNC) and TerraUSd Classic (USTC) without notifying investors of the danger that the price of both could plummet significantly at the same time.
This led to the prosecutors ordering that Kwon’s and other Terra employees’ passports be revoked.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
