Legislation is being pursued to ease current regulations that require even online video services (OTT), which are not directly related to public safety, to draw up disaster management plans.

On Jan. 5, Democratic Party lawmaker Hwang Jeong-a, a member of the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, said she introduced an amendment to the Framework Act on Broadcasting Communications Development. The bill would exclude OTT and other non-safety-essential services from the list of entities required to comply with the basic broadcasting and communications disaster management plan, which is currently designated across the board based on traffic.

Under current rules, value-added telecommunications operators subject to disaster management obligations are designated based on the number of users and traffic volume. This has drawn criticism as excessive regulation because it uniformly imposes obligations even on services with low direct relevance to public safety, such as OTT and healthcare apps.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said the entities required to establish a telecommunications disaster management basic plan this year include Netflix and Samsung Health. It also said the possibility has been raised that the scope could be expanded in the future to include game companies.

The amendment introduced by Hwang would keep the principle of the traffic-based criteria. It would allow services to be excluded from the obligation, after review by the Telecommunications Disaster Management Review Committee, when their characteristics mean they do not have a significant impact on public safety.

“Imposing disaster management obligations even on services unrelated to public safety, such as private OTT and health apps, is an administrative convenience-driven idea,” Hwang said. “We must boldly remove ineffective regulations and support the growth of the K-content industry,” she said.