South Korea vows tougher stance after outcry over sexual deepfakes in Telegram chat rooms

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday called for digital sex crimes to be thoroughly investigated after media reported that sexually explicit deepfake images and videos of South Korean women were often found in Telegram chat rooms.

The reports by domestic media have coincided with the arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram’s Russian-born founder, over the weekend – part of a French probe into child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud on the encrypted messaging app.

The Korea Communications Standards Commission, the state media regulator, plans to hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss measures to counter sexually explicit deepfakes.

“It’s an exploitation of technology while relying on the protection of anonymity. It’s a clear criminal act,” Yoon said during a televised cabinet meeting.

Yoon talked about sex crimes on social media in general and did not mention Telegram by name.

Telegram did not immediately respond to request for comment.

South Korea has the world’s fastest average internet speeds, but activists say it also has an acute epidemic of digital sex crimes, including spycams and revenge porn, with inadequate legislation to punish offenders.

“Recently, deepfake videos targeting unspecified individuals have been rapidly spreading through social media,” Yoon told a cabinet meeting, according to his office.

Online deepfake sex crimes have surged, according to South Korean police, who say 297 cases were reported in the first seven months of the year. That’s up from 180 last year and nearly double the number in 2021 when data first began to be collated.

Most of the accused were teenagers and people in their 20s, the police said.

The local media reports included one analysis that went viral by the Hankyoreh newspaper