The logo for Google on the window of the Google for Startups Campus Seoul in Gangnam, southern Seoul. Korea Times file

By Lee Kyung-min

Open Net, a non-profit private organization established with the sole sponsorship of Google Korea, is spearheading a campaign against a bill that requires the Korean office of the global IT giant to pay a substantial internet usage fee, a parliamentary science and ICT committee member said Tuesday.

The supposedly non-profit entity was launched in 2013, and has since received 1.36 billion won ($9.5 million) through 2021, said the committee member, blasting the online forum for "cooperating" to engineer ad campaigns on YouTube, the chief growth driver of the IT giant, in order to frustrate the bill.

The contentious YouTube ads encourage viewers to sign a petition on behalf of Open Net, to help discard what it has characterized as an evil that "will lead to immense consequences for content creators and the operation of the online platform." Over 260,000 signatures were collected as of Tuesday.

Rep. Byun Jae-ill of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea and a member of the National Assembly Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee said the non-profit organization is established solely because of the support of Google Korea.

"Google Korea has yet to respond to inquiries sought by my office on the amount of donations total it gave to Open Net," he said during a National Assembly audit of the Ministry of Science and ICT, Monday.

Google Korea stated that the amount of donations totaled 40 million won in 2020 in a public filing of its financial information, a claim the lawmaker said was proven false in data provided by the National Tax Service.

"Google Korea gave Open Net 220 million won in 2020 alone, according to the tax agency's data that was provided to my office," he said. "Google Korea should immediately halt its misleading campaigns designed only to generate concerns for content creators highly averse to any greater financial burden."