Deepfake Porn is Destroying South Korea

Maryam Mohammed, BA Politics and Korean 28/10/2024

Telegram has come under fire in South Korea after deepfake and child pornography was found circulating amongst middle and high school students via the app. The deepfake videos, posted on channels with reportedly over 200,000 members, included unconsenting family members, celebrities, schoolgirls, female military officers and female university professors. On August 27th President Yoon Suk Yeol urged a thorough investigation of the Telegram crimes. 

South Korea’s National Police Agency reported 297 cases of deepfake porn from January to July- 387 arrests were made this year alone. Teenagers accounted for 80% of all deepfake porn-related arrests this year, a 5% increase from last year, as well as making up the majority of victims with 799 minors from elementary to high school being caught in digital sex crimes. 

Save the Children launched their ‘Delete the Children’ campaign in South Korea this September, amidst this epidemic, campaigning to remove children’s data and images from the internet to prevent deepfake porn in schools. 

Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov was arrested upon his arrival in Paris on August 25th, for his alleged complicity in the crimes on the platform -including drug trafficking and fraud. Despite the app’s alleged refusal to cooperate with Korean authorities over the years, following Pavel’s arrest. Telegram has agreed to cooperate with the Korea Communications Standards Commission, accepting the KCSC’s request to delete 148 videos. 

Telegram’s deepfake group chats follow shortly after the 2019 ‘Nth room’ case.

Amongst the most heinous and large-scale sexual crime cases that South Korean jurisprudence has ever witnessed in the 21st century

The ‘Nth rooms’ were Telegram group chats, owned by Moon Hyung-wook, nicknamed ‘god god’ selling sexual exploitation videos to over 260,000 IDs. With the leverage of 74 victims’ IDs and personal information, the abuse of the girls varied from forced fetish pornography to extreme self-harm as well as offline assault. The ‘Nth rooms’ and their monetisation of digital sex slavery shook the South Korean public.

The pervasive prevalence of ‘molka’ (hidden camera) crimes in South Korea  has been a widely debated issue since the early 2000s, with cameras frequently hidden in women’s bathrooms and hotel rooms. Thousands are arrested for ‘molka’ crimes each year. 

The repeated issue of online sex crimes is reflective of Korea’s ongoing subjection to misogyny, and objectification of its women. Feminist activists urge harsher criminal convictions for sexual abusers and illegal porn distributors including the upheaval of rape culture and victim-shaming. On September 13th the Seoul Women's Association and its University Student Union staged a protest in Gangnam, condemning law enforcement for poor investigation and labelling the government and Telegram as enablers and ‘accomplices’. 

On September 23rd, The National Assembly Gender Equality and Family Committee proposed a revision in the law to allow online platforms to delete deepfake videos per request of the police, rather than having to go through the KCSC. However, the committee accepted the rejection of the KCSC arguing ‘it could be an excessive obligation on internet service providers’ whilst police contended it would ‘increase workload’. Despite this, on September 26th legislation was passed that criminalises the purchase, download and consumption of deepfake porn-additionally this new law can sentence consumers up to 3 years or a fine up to 30M won, once finalised. Together with the existing law which gives deepfake producers up to 5 years in prison or a fine of 50M won.

 On September 27th, members of various humanitarian and feminist organisations held an emergency press conference outside the National Assembly in Seoul. They criticised the government and the Gender Equality and Family Committee for neglecting women’s safety and failing to implement preventive methods following the ‘Nth room’ case.