ICT Ministry asks Google to explain server outage

The Ministry of Science and ICT of South Korea said Tuesday that it has asked Google for a report explaining the server outage that interrupted Google services a day earlier.

Multiple Google services, including YouTube, Gmail, Google Assistant and Google Docs, were down for around an hour late Monday.

“The ministry has requested Google to report back to the authorities, to identify detailed causes for the recent issue with its services,” the ICT Ministry said. “The ministry has also asked the company to make a Korean-language announcement for local users.”

The request is in line with a new rule, dubbed the “Netflix law” here, that requires large content providers to ensure the stability of their platforms.

Google is the first company subject to the revised enforcement decree of the Telecommunications Business Act, which came into effect Dec. 10.

According to the changed decree, the authorities can request that firms provide an explanation when they fail to ensure stability in the delivery of their services.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)