Who enables digital authoritarianism within democracies? The case of South Korea

Digital authoritarianism refers to authoritarian practices employed by both authoritarian and democratic governments in the digital space, with varying consequences: the more mature a democracy, the greater the impairment of liberal democracy. Despite current scholarly contributions to developing the concept of digital authoritarian practices, there remains a need for a comprehensive framework to examine the relationships among the entities involved in these practices. By shifting our attention from the agents and instruments of digital authoritarianism, this paper will explore how the state, platforms, and civil society enable digital authoritarianism in the Global South and East. Who drives these practices in democracies with power? To examine the power dynamics, the practice lens has allowed focusing on the entities that carry out authoritarian practices, often entities other than the government. The digital era, with its technological advancements, has seen the emergence of corporations as significant political actors, thereby transforming traditional government-centred governance. Thus, by focusing on the diverse actors involved in digital authoritarian practices in democracy—government, platforms, and citizens —and adopting the concept of a “hybrid regime”— in which authoritarian and democratic traits coexist in a single state—the digital sphere expands. This paper will discuss how the democratic government of a mature democracy shapes the environment of digital authoritarian practices, drawing on recently completed field research in South Korea. South Korea is a mature democracy and a developed internet-connected nation, with native platforms such as Kakao and Naver functioning as infrastructure. Korean citizens are highly adaptable to technology. However, overall, digital authoritarian practices are implemented by their own government due to the security threat from North Korea and to protect the president from rumours. Not only did the Korean government block websites or filter content related to North Korea, but it also attempted to collect specific conversation data from the domestic platform Kakao. When users migrated to other platforms, Kakao declined to provide further data to the government. This case provides unique insights into other democracies, highlighting the power of local platforms that act as national infrastructure, shaping mutual dependencies with the government, and the government’s capacity to intervene in them. I conducted 35 interviews during fieldwork between June and August 2025 with current and former government officials, staff from domestic and multinational platforms, academics, and civil society representatives. I explored their perceptions of the power dynamics between the Korean government and platforms. Respondents described the political power held over democratic institutions by the government, alongside the social, technological, and data power held by platforms that the government lacks. Their responses also reveal the marginalisation of citizens in these power dynamics. Given the interview data, this research attempts to answer how digital authoritarianism shapes power relations in South Korea. Through the mutually dependent relationship between them, both government and platforms exercise their power. This results in citizens becoming isolated in terms of participation and representation. Therefore, the interdependency of the government and platforms, along with the isolation of civil society, reinforces digital authoritarianism within democracy.