54% Say Senior Officials' Policy Directives on Social Media Are "Inappropriate"

Results of New Reform Party Poll on Social Issues
Majority Say Senior Officials’ Policy Directives on Social Media Are “Inappropriate”

A poll has found that 54.5% of respondents consider it inappropriate for senior government officials to direct relevant agencies to review policies or take administrative action through social media posts.

In a survey of 516 adults aged 18 and older nationwide conducted on October 12 and 13 by the Gaehyeok Research Institute at the request of the New Reform Party, 54.5% said it was “inappropriate” for senior government officials to issue policy or administrative directives on social media. Some 35.1% said it was “appropriate,” 19.4 percentage points lower than the share who said it was inappropriate.

By contrast, views were split on the impact of senior government officials’ general communications on social media, such as directly stating their positions on policy issues: 42.3% said these activities had a positive impact, while 46.1% said they had a negative impact. In other words, while opinions differed on social media communication itself, respondents showed greater opposition to using it as a means of issuing administrative directives.

In particular, 89.3% of respondents who viewed social media communication itself negatively also said that issuing policy directives through social media was inappropriate. When asked which principle was most important in senior government officials’ social media activities, the largest share, 38.6%, chose “listening to the public’s questions and criticism.” This was followed by “providing accurate information” (26.2%), “making actual implementation results public” (12.4%), and “following official administrative procedures” (8.4%).

Lee Giin, chair of the New Reform Party’s emergency committee, said, “Social media is a space for listening to the public, not a stage for one-way policy directives or self-promotion—what you might call ‘show-tong.’ The government and senior officials should stop issuing social media directives for show and return to the basics by humbly listening to the public’s questions and criticism first.”

The survey was conducted using a wireless random digit dialing (RDD) automated response system (ARS). The margin of error is ±4.31 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. As the survey covered social issues rather than election opinions, it is not subject to reporting to the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.