South Korean parliament summons tech giants and business leaders for audit hearings

The National Assembly has begun its annual parliamentary audit, slated to run for nearly a month, and has approved a roster of witnesses from foreign-owned tech firms operating in South Korea. Google Korea’s managing director Yoon Koo will appear before three committees on anticompetitive practices, alleged leaks of victims’ personal data, and possible tax evasion. Meta Korea executives Kim Jin-ah and Heo Ouk are set to be questioned about a personal-data breach and the platform’s role in unregulated street fights, a topic also shared with TikTok Korea’s Jung Jae-hoon.

Representatives from X Korea, Telegram, Apple Korea, and Coupang will face inquiries on curbing illegal information, GPS restrictions, and a large consumer-data leak. Domestic business leaders, including Korean Air CEO Cho Won-tae and Hanwha Vice Chair Kim Dong-kwan, are also on the list. While the Supreme Court chief justice Jo Hee-de was named a witness, he has submitted a refusal, and former policy director Kim Yong-beom was not accepted as a witness after party objections.