South Korean officials are increasing criminal penalties on people making sexually explicit deepfakes as the Asian country battles a surge of users making and sharing faked pornography on social media.
Creators of deepfake pornography are using photos of women and, without their permission, manipulating them into sexually explicit videos and images; the shared results then garner hundreds of thousands of views on platforms like the messaging app Telegram.
On Thursday, South Korea’s government and the ruling People Power Party (PPP) pledged to increase the maximum prison term from five to seven years for someone intending to make and distribute sexually explicit deepfake materials. South Korea is also pushing for a hotline with the messaging app Telegram, the home for many of these deepfakes.
Telegram did not immediately respond to Fortune's request for comment.
The arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in Paris has revived a controversy in South Korea, where thousands of users share sexually explicit computer-generated imagery on the social media platform.
Earlier this month, a police investigation found one Telegram group chat with 1,200 members where users shared not only deepfakes but also personal information like addresses and student IDs.
A web page listing schools and universities affected by the deepfake networks has garnered 3 million page views since Tuesday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
On Tuesday, President Yoon Suk-Yeol called for a thorough investigation of digital sex crimes, and called an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, South Korea’s state-funded Advocacy Center for Online Sexual Abuse Victims claimed there were at least 2,000 victims of deepfake crimes in the past six years–with the true number likely being much higher than that. Over 30% of victims who sought help were minors, according to the state agency.
South Korean celebrities make up over half of all deepfaked pornography worldwide, according to a 2023 study from cybersecurity company Security Hero. Almost all examples targeted women.
Telegram under the microscope
South Korea’s campaign against deepfakes coincides with the recent arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov last weekend. Durov is facing several charges in France that include complicity in the spread of sexual images of children on the app, and is currently barred from leaving the country.
Telegram is widely used throughout Asia, particularly in markets like India and Indonesia.
In 2017, Indonesia blocked access to Telegram over concerns that the platform was being used to spread “radical and terrorist propaganda.” Jakarta lifted the ban a month later after Telegram agreed to improve its procedures for blocking radical content.
Indonesia again threatened to block Telegram this year, this time over the spread of online gambling content.
Indian media also report that the South Asian government is investigating Telegram for its role in facilitating extortion and gambling.
There are approximately 100 million and 27 million Telegram users in India and Indonesia respectively, according to Demand Sage, a data reporting and analytics solution provider.
