South Korea's Health Misinformation Response during COVID-19: A Narrative-Thematic Analysis

Abstract

Infodemics have emerged as a serious contemporary challenge to public health, especially in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This paper conducts a narrative thematic analysis exploring the South Korean response to the public health risks caused by misinformation, critically examining the legal, social, and ethical dimensions of dealing with the difficulties posed by health misinformation, identifying the following key themes: limitations posed by existing law in South Korea, government policies as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, self-regulation in the private sector and mitigation of the social impacts of COVID-19 misinformation. The paper offers a thematic exploration of South Korea's integrated policy response to health misinformation within the context of the global COVID-19 infodemic and highlights the South Korean effort to balance the protection of public health and welfare with citizen's individual rights to freedom of expression and the necessity of flexibility and adaptive policies to effectively counter COVID-19 misinformation. It observes the importance of effective public health communication and provides insight useful for dealing with potential future challenges arising from the proliferation of health misinformation and mitigating the adverse impacts of infodemics on public health initiatives, using the example of South Korea.