Korean Webtoon Piracy Reports Surge as Takedowns Fall Short

A Korean government official has highlighted a sharp rise in webtoon piracy and the difficulty of fighting it. According to data released on October 1 by Representative Sol Son of the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports, and Tourism Committee, takedown requests for unauthorized overseas distribution of Korean webtoons jumped nearly eightfold, from about 48,000 cases in 2020 to over 393,000 in 2024.

The trouble is how few of those requests actually work. Despite the efforts of the Korea Copyright Protection Agency, only around 8.8 percent of webtoon takedown requests last year succeeded, leaving more than 91 percent of illegal copies still online.

Webtoons now make up the vast majority of Korea’s content takedown requests, accounting for 77 percent as of August 2025, a reflection of both the format’s global popularity and increasingly sophisticated piracy.

Officials point to structural problems behind the low success rate. The requests are not legally binding and rely on rights holders pursuing further action in each country, while the responsible division is said to have just 28 staff and a frozen international enforcement budget.

Lawmakers and industry voices are now calling for stronger international cooperation and binding legal frameworks to better protect the country’s booming webtoon industry.

My take: Piracy is a genuinely tough problem, and it is sobering to see how outmatched enforcement efforts are against it. Protecting creators’ work matters, so I hope the calls for better tools and cooperation are heard.