Bandung, IndonesiaSentinel.com — An outbreak of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-engineered pornographic content called deepfake is spreading across South Korea. Korean women are frightened by various deepfake content being circulated on the messaging platform Telegram, forcing them to delete their photos on social media, avoid being a victim.
Telegram CEO and founder Pavel Durov was arrested recently in France, and now will be facing legal troubles in South Korea again. South Korean Police have announced a preliminary investigation into the instant messaging platform’s alleged involvement in facilitating sex crimes.
According to a report from the Yonhap news agency, the investigation is part of South Korea’s efforts to address the growing issue of deepfake pornography targeting women, including teenagers. South Korea’s National Investigation Agency Chief Woo Jong-soo said they plan to cooperate with French authorities and other international agencies to resolve this problem.
This investigation is expected to be complicated as Telegram does not directly provide investigative data, such as account information, to any country’s investigative agencies, including those in the US, as quoted from CNBC International, Thursday, September 4, 2024. Telegram’s refusal to share information with investigators when required by law has also been noted in the French investigation.
Deepfake Content Impact
The spread of deepfake pornography content has instilled fear in many South Korean women, leading them to delete their personal photos from social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to avoid being victimized. “It feels like our safe space, our everyday life, has been violated,” a 27-year-old woman stated from the Korea Times.
Extreme Temperature Rise in Japan Causing 123 Deaths from Heatstroke
The issue of deepfakes came into the spotlight when a graduate of Seoul National University, in his 40s allegedly conspired with three other men to create explicit images and videos of victims using deepfake technology, and share them on Telegram.
So far, 61 victims have been identified, including 12 former students from the same university as the perpetrator.
In a short time, multiple reports of similar deepfake related sex crimes emerged, with several Telegram chatrooms found targeting minors. One Telegram channel reportedly had more than 220,000 members and had a program that could instantly transform photos to nude. What’s worse is that the perpetrators encouraged members of the channel to share photos of people they knew.
Bae Sang-hoon, a professor at the police administration department at Woosuk University, said perpetrators of these crimes are often motivated by low self-esteem, the desire for entertainment, or a need to harass or seek revenge on individuals they cannot confront in person or cannot be done physically.
With the combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Telegram, which is widely used by teenagers and the younger generation, it has caused explosive damage to occur across the country.
(Raidi/Agung)
