[Legiscope] National Assembly Intensively Proposes 5 Amendments to the Information and Communications Network Act in a Month... A Signal of Tighter Regulations for the Telecom Industry

Accelerating legislative drive for personal information and cybersecurity, telecom and platform companies must rush to respond

In the single month of February 2026, 5 partial amendment bills to the "Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, etc." were intensively proposed in the National Assembly, putting full-fledged legislative pressure on the telecommunications and internet service industries.

The timing of the proposals includes February 10, 12, 26, and 27 (2 bills), showing a trend of accelerating pace toward the end of the month. The fact that 5 amendments to a single law were submitted concurrently within a month is interpreted as reflecting the National Assembly's strong legislative will regarding the issue.

The "Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, etc." is a core foundational information and communications law that encompasses personal information processing by online service providers, cyber breach response, and regulation of illegal information distribution. Although the specific revision direction of this intensive proposal may differ by bill, the industry analyzes that they were proposed in tandem with recent social issues such as deepfake abuse, personal information leak incidents, and discussions on dark pattern regulation.

From an investor's perspective, it is necessary to pay attention to the possibility of increased compliance costs for the three major telecom companies including KT, SK Telecom, and LG Uplus, as well as large platform operators such as Naver, and Kakao. If regulatory tightening becomes a reality, the advancement of data processing infrastructure and expansion of security investments will be inevitable, which may affect short-term profitability.

It is time for companies to closely track the review schedules and potential consolidated discussions of the 5 amendment bills, while proactively reorganizing internal regulations in preparation for changes to mandatory provisions and sanction rules of each amendment.

This article was written based on Legiscope, a legislative tracking engine built by News Epoch.