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The online community "Daily Best Storage" (Ilbe), which has caused social controversy over ridicule and hateful posts, has opened its hands to its members to raise operating expenses.

While requesting donations, saying that it has become difficult to operate the site due to a decrease in advertising revenue, it has also decided to introduce a "premium member service" that provides various benefits to sponsoring members.

Ilbe's management team said in a site notice on the 11th, "As advertising execution has decreased significantly recently, it is currently difficult to operate the site stably with advertising revenue alone."

Although the cost of server operation, development, and maintenance has been mainly covered by advertising revenue, it is explained that the operating difficulties have become serious due to the shrinking advertising market. The management team is also operating the site without a separate salary, so they took out a card called member sponsorship.

The operation team said it is preparing a "premium member service" to reduce its dependence on advertising and secure financial independence. The plan is to provide various benefits related to the use of the site to members who have contributed. It was also decided to establish a system for disclosing the accumulated amount of sponsorship for existing sponsors.

The management also publicly stated that it is difficult to guarantee the future of the site. In the announcement, he said, "It is difficult for us to guarantee how long the Ilbe storage will last in the future," mentioning the possibility of the site closing in fact.

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Ilbe has caused social controversy several times over defamation of the deceased and extreme hate and ridicule posts. It has also been mentioned as a political and social phenomenon in the political world to the extent that the expression "Ilvesik" is used to ridicule certain politicians or groups.

In recent years, political discussions over Ilbe have also become more violent.

In particular, President Lee Jae Myung directly mentioned Ilbe on May 24 and directly mentioned that it is necessary to publicize and actually review measures such as punishment for expressing ridicule and hatred, punitive damages, and closure and fines for sites that neglect and encourage ridicule and hatred under strict conditions.

At the time, President Lee said, "Like Ilbe, there are arguments that freedom of expression should be protected against promoting social division and conflict through ridicule and insult, and that sanctions including punishment are needed."

Later, Rep. Lee Hoon-ki of the Democratic Party of Korea proposed the so-called Ilbe Prohibition Act (a partial amendment to the Act on Promotion of Information and Communication Network Utilization and Information Protection) on June 4.

The content is to punish those who repeatedly distribute mock and hate information, and to order measures such as deletion, blocking access, and restricting monetization of sites that are left unattended even after knowing about them. It also includes a fine or an order to close the site if the order to take action is not followed.