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Namuwiki () is a Korean-language wiki based in Paraguay. It was launched on 17 April 2015 and is powered by the proprietary wiki software the Seed.
According to The Hankyoreh, as of October 2024 Namuwiki had 2.2 times more articles and 7.2 times more traffic than the Korean Wikipedia, while Similarweb ranked it as the fifth most visited website in South Korea. According to The Korea Economic Daily, Namuwiki had a maximum daily user count of 2 million, and a maximum daily pageview count of 45 million in 2021, making it the seventh most visited website in South Korea that year.
In May 2016, Namu transferred Namuwiki's server management rights to a new owner, UmanLe S.R.L., a company based in Asunción, Paraguay. On August, a Namuwiki user created an article about "equalism"; it falsely claimed that a supposed new ideology, "equalism", had appeared in the West, and made multiple remarks against Feminism ideologies. As South Korea was seeing heated online debates about Radical feminism website Megalia during this time, the article quickly gained a lot of attraction and contributions. Although most of the assertions and references included in the article were false or fabricated, contents of it were widely spread over Korean society, resulting in false articles about the concept of equalism. The false article existed for longer than six months, until a feminist wiki named Femiwiki brought forward specific and definite arguments on 24 January 2017. Soon, it was proved that most of the claims were false and the original idea of equalism was mostly a fabrication. In September 2018, the site began displaying advertisements on the top banner of its pages, ostensibly to help fund its server rental fees.
On 9 January 2019, Korean politician Cho Hae-joo formally announced that he had deleted material written on his Namuwiki page, as it contained "false elements", which resulted in political backlash.
In November 2023, the Democratic Party accused then president Yoon Suk Yeol of "preparing for martial law" on the basis of 130 officers deleting their Namuwiki pages. In a press conference, Democratic Party Member of Parliament Yang Mun-suk (양문석) said: "130 officers of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces have deleted or have taken the preemptive actions for the removal of their Namuwiki pages since last April. I have strong suspicions that these actions are not just flying rumors but preparations for emergencies such as martial law." During the 2024 South Korean legislative election, Jang Ye-chan (장예찬), a former member of the People Power Party (PPP) supreme council (국민의힘 최고의원), was dropped from nomination by the PPP due to his controversies regarding rough speech which started from a part from his Namuwiki article.
On 15 October, PPP legislator Kim Jang-Kyum (김장겸) said that "Namuwiki is becoming a distributing channel for illegal content such as deepfake porn, and fake news. It is in the structure of a 'voluntary encyclopedia by the collective intellect', but is subject to malicious edits, stigmatization, and false accusations", and that "The government should come up with powerful solutions to deal with Namuwiki's dangerous and illegal elements." On 16 October, the KCSC delivered a resolution of the 'blocking' (접속차단) of personal information of on Namuwiki. The Special Committee for Telecommunication Consultations (통신자문특별위원회), accepting the pleas from two influencers, one saying that photos of the individual with his/her previous lover alongside photos of physical affection, or "스킨쉽", have been on Namuwiki for a long time, and the other saying that Namuwiki had the individual's "life contents from 2013 to 2023 in its articles, alongside the individual's photos, real name, birthplace/time, nationality, body measures, education, prizes and awards, and even family information", resolved that rectification was needed. The Special Committee for Telecommunication Consultations further stated that this was a "decision made in consideration of the rapid spread of Internet media and its increasing influence day by day", and that they were "applying the relevant regulations more strictly than before, reflecting the recent reality that can cause enormous damage to individuals by spreading unwanted portraits or privacy information."
To the above, on the same day (16 October), Umanle S.R.L., the mother company of Namuwiki, said that "In order to prevent infringement of rights caused by Namuwiki documents, we have internally established a system and faithfully responded to the demands of rights holders", and that "We express great concern and regret over the decision to block access and the (blockage) announcement of the media." Later, Namuwiki officially verified that they had made the statement through Media Today on their question board (문의 게시판). Umanle S.R.L. further stated on another request on Namuwiki's question board that they did not know which articles the KCSC was taking action against and that it was only guessing which ones they were by the press and previous letters sent by the pleading individuals, and that it was more confusing to specify which part (of the article) the problem was due to the pleading individual's website still displaying the same information the individual was claiming as "an invasion of privacy."
On 21 October 2024, during a national audit regarding the , a standing committee of the National Assembly, Kim Jang-kyom further stated that the website was "being used as a tool for all kinds of illegal activities such as digital sex crimes, copyright infringement, personal information infringement, etc." PPP legislator Choi Hyung-du (최형두) said "If you search (about something), Namuwiki comes out first. It is said to be a citizen participation type (시민참여형), but if (the operating body) is unidentifiable and unable to be rectified, I wonder if it isn't necessary to exercise (Korea's) sovereignty like (in the examples of) France or other South-American countries and control it clearly or to block it outright." Ryu Hee-lim (류희림), the current chairman of the Korea Communications Standards Commission, said "We have recently changed our reviewing standards and are now strongly requesting for deletion in the case of any privacy, portrait violation cases.", "if our rectification requests are not met in the future, we are considering a temporary complete-blockage."
According to the KCSC on 23 October, when one of the influencers mentioned above requested the deletion of a Namuwiki article with a photo of the individual with his/her ex, the publisher (게시자) removed it voluntarily. According to Yonhap (same article) the other (between the two aforementioned above) influencer's family information was also taken down by Namuwiki. In an The Hankyoreh article, it is said that on 29 October, a KCSC figure said "if (Namuwiki) keeps idly ignoring our corrections, we can further resolute a 'Recommendation for Strengthening Self-Regulation' (자율규제 강화 권고) and a 'Warning' (경고), and if Namuwiki continues to not improve after our 'Warning', we can undergo a 'temporary complete-blockage' (일시적 전체 차단). We are currently trying to increase the effectiveness of our correction demands by increasing co-operation with Namuwiki, and will continue to respond appropriately as the situation develops.
On 30 October, aforementioned legislator Kim Jang-kyom (김장겸), belonging to the PPP and also a member of the PPP's Special Media Committee (미디어특별위원회), posted on Facebook stating that "(Namuwiki's) real owners and administrators are not identifiable and are not subject to Korean law, and that he is planning to sue them in Paraguay's court if any legal troubles should occur." The post connected it to ties with the left leaning media and further criticized Namuwiki, claiming that there are further problems such as Namuwiki distributing illegal deep-fake content, the owning and operation of Korean website Arcalive (by Namuwiki's owners and operators Umanle S.R.L., located in Paraguay) and that Umanle S.R.L.'s profits were estimated to be over USD 7 million (10 billion won, 100억 원) per year. In the same post, he further added that:
On 1 November 2024, the PPP's Special Media Committee (미디어특별위원회) stated that:
The post also quoted MBC's 3rd labor union (MBC 제3노조); it said that "left-leaning media are advocating Namuwiki as an 'online encyclopedia jointly compiled by users' in terms of freedom of expression, but this is an abuse of freedom. Expression.MBCs third labor union pointed out, "There are frequent acts of indiscriminately publishing other people's personal information as well as fake news, and the problem is serious because it is a structure that does not allow filing complaints or protesting."
Coincidentally, that afternoon (1 November), Namuwiki was temporarily unusable, with pages displaying this error message: "잠시 서버 작업이 진행되고 있거나, 일시적인 오류일 수 있습니다. 아래의 새로 고침 버튼을 눌러보세요" (The server might be undergoing management, or could be a temporary error. Try pressing the refresh button below). This succession of events led to the arousing suspicions of users regarding the reason why Namuwiki was unusable, with Kim Jang-Kyum's Namuwiki article itself later trending on 1 November. The temporary issue was fixed a few hours later. On 3 November, PPP legislator Kim Jang-Kyum (김장겸) launched the process for a law Korean news outlets dubbed the " Namuwiki transparency law" (나무위키 투명화법). The new law legislator Kim is pushing for is a revised bill for the Act on promotion of information and communications network utilization and information protection (정보통신망 이용촉진 및 정보보호 등에 관한 법률). According to Kim, the revisal's key elements are the reinforcing of Namuwiki's proxy body in Korea, and the introduction of a confiscation system for profits based on the distribution of illegal information. Furthermore, Kim says that they are pushing for a system where the domestic proxy requirements are expanded from current user count and revenue to encompassing other elements such as visits and traffic, with an addition of similar expansions for minor protection.
In entertainment and politics, Namuwiki makes sporadic appearances in the scene, where sometimes readers can see Korean public figures, entertainers, and politicians reading Namuwiki's criticism section of their own articles like a politician spinoff of "reading mean comments". According to E-daily, public figures reading, reviewing, and editing their own Namuwiki articles have been an increasing trend on Korean YouTube. It has also come under pressure from various politicians and political organizations, while various efforts were either made or theorized against Namuwiki. Critics of these acts argued that the blocking or taking-down of Namuwiki would be unnecessary censorship and the hindrance of freedom of speech.
According to JoongAng Ilbos call with the aids of the PPP's first-term MP's office (초선실), it is said that the PPP has separate designated assistants just for Namuwiki management. In March 2017, MK News detailed Namuwiki and the "humorous" writing style of its articles. In November 2018, Namuwiki was mentioned by Korean news outlet representative Junghwan Lee, as a positive example for news outlets to follow in the context of fake news, explaining that information contributed online from repeated discussion, deletion, and adjustments ultimately creates truthful information.
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