Deepfake porn is rampant in South Korea, and TWICE girl group idols are also victims
South Korea recently broke out in a large-scale deepfake illegal pornography scandal. The perpetrators mainly collected facial photos of ordinary women and female artists, and used AI technology to synthesize the images and circulated them on groups on the messaging software Telegram. The victims Including underage girls and members of girl groups such as TWICE and NewJeans.
At present, South Korean idol management companies JYP, YG and CUBE have all issued statements that they will take seriously violations of the rights of their artists. Among them, JYP even said that it "will never stand by and watch."
How serious is deepfake porn in South Korea? Women’s League: It has become a national crisis
The serious digital sexual violence case "Room N" broke out in South Korea only a few years ago, and this time the fake sex crime has been called "Room N 2.0" by the media, and the criminals have even extended their claws into the school.
Recently, the Hankyoreh published exclusive news that shocked South Korea. Reporter Ko Narin conducted an in-depth investigation into the deep fake sex crime syndicates in two universities and found that there are dozens of related groups on Telegram. Almost all the time, there are people... Uploading photos of girls you know and converting them into deepfake porn within seconds is a crime that spreads across many campuses. Some students even developed a deepfake victim map to warn.
Source: Korea Times Deep fake victim map developed by South Korean students
What’s even more shocking is that according to Cho Ji-ho, director of the South Korean Police Agency, 75% of the deepfake sex offenders caught so far are young people between 10 and 19 years old; and another survey pointed out that so far this year 37% of deepfake victims are minors.
Just sharing photos of your face on social media and worrying that they will be used to make face-swap porn? The South Korean women's group "Women's Friendship Association" accused that the seriousness of false sexual crimes has constituted a national crisis, causing local women to feel panic and have lost their sense of security in their daily lives.
South Korean police launch pre-clearance investigation into Telegram
After the spread of fake sex crimes, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yue ordered a thorough investigation and eradication of the spread of digital sex crimes. On August 29, the ruling party also pushed for legislation to increase the maximum prison sentence for sex crimes from five years to seven years.
On September 2, Woo Jong-soo, director of the National Investigation Headquarters of the South Korean National Police Agency, announced that the police had launched a pre-case investigation into Telegram on the grounds that it was suspected of assisting in deepfakes.
Yu Zhongshou revealed that Telegram’s failure to actively cooperate with the investigation is a problem not only for the South Korean police, but also for other countries. They plan to work with French investigative services and multiple international organizations to find ways to detect Telegram.
Recently, French authorities have filed multiple felony charges against Durov, the founder of Telegram, including Telegram’s alleged role in facilitating drug trade, child sex crimes and other organized crimes.
After France took action, the Indonesian government is collecting evidence of illegal content being spread on Telegram and is considering banning it; the Indian authorities are also launching an investigation to confirm whether the platform violates legal regulations; and then there is South Korea mentioned this time, which has been done twice Large-scale digital sex crimes are spread through Telegram.
Source: News.za Deep fake porn is rampant in South Korea, and multiple criminal groups have appeared on Telegram
Should Telegram be held responsible for user abuse?
"CryptoCity" previously reported that Telegram stated that the platform complied with EU regulations, and that Durov himself was not suspected of committing a crime. It was ridiculous to claim that the platform was responsible for user abuse.
However, even though Telegram said it would proactively monitor public content on the platform, use AI tools to handle user complaints, and delete millions of pieces of content that violate the platform's terms every day, it still seems unable to effectively curb abuse.
The accusation against the founder of Telegram has set off a debate between free speech, user privacy and curbing crime. Musk, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and others have expressed concerns about free speech, but from the perspective of law enforcement agencies , The platform’s refusal to cooperate makes it more difficult to solve the case and may make the criminals more emboldened.
In Taiwan, Dcard, a well-known social platform, was once subject to prosecutors and police using search tickets to access information because its users were involved in fraud, child and juvenile cases, etc. On the premise of protecting user privacy, Dcard provides limited information to assist in investigation and investigation.
Photo source: Lin Yuqin, founder of DcardDcard
However, another draft of the "Digital Intermediary Services Act" that was introduced to target Internet security was withdrawn amid doubts about restricting freedom of speech, indicating that the Taiwanese people are still looking for a balance between freedom of speech and Internet security.