South Korea conducts a large-scale investigation into Telegram deepfake sexual crimes

Recently, South Korea has launched a large-scale investigation into deepfake sexual crimes on the "Telegram" platform. On September 2, Woo Jong-soo, director of the National Investigation Headquarters of the South Korean National Police Agency, said at a regular press conference that the police launched a pre-litigation investigation against "Telegram" on suspicion of "aiding deepfake sexual crimes".

It is reported that the South Korean police are currently conducting a criminal investigation into several "Telegram" programs that automatically generate deepfake sexual exploitation content and are conducting extensive investigations into group chat channels that produce and broadcast related images. Previously, the founder and CEO of "Telegram", Pavel Durov, was arrested in Paris, France on August 24. He was accused of not taking measures to curb various illegal activities on the "Telegram" platform.

The South Korean police face many difficulties in the investigation. The "Telegram" company is extremely uncooperative in providing case-related materials such as account information. Not only the South Korean police, but also other countries such as the United States encounter the same investigation difficulties. Nevertheless, the South Korean police said they are doing their best to investigate the case.

Data shows that from January to July this year, there have been as many as 297 cases of deepfake-related crimes in South Korea, and 146 people have been arrested, exceeding the number of arrests for the whole of last year. And about 75% of those arrested are in the age group of 10 - 19 years old, and the proportion of young people under 30 years old among all those arrested is as high as 95%. Among them, the South Korean military has also become a hard-hit area for "deepfake sexual crimes". Some relevant criminal group chats quickly went offline after the incident fermented, and the police face great difficulties in investigation.

This investigation is of great significance. It is the first time that the South Korean police have launched an investigation into an online platform with overseas background that has not assisted in the investigation. The South Korean police said they will be committed to cooperating with French investigation departments and multiple international organizations to find investigation methods against the "Telegram" company. South Korean politicians also attach great importance to this. President Yoon Suk Yeol clearly stated that deepfakes are criminal acts. Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, also called for formulating countermeasures at the legislative level of the National Assembly to eradicate deepfake crimes in South Korea. All sectors of South Korean society are strongly calling on the government to take tougher measures to protect the public from such crimes.