“Some people got rich from it”: In South Korea, the scourge of pornographic deepfakes becomes a business on Telegram

Korean feminist groups have revealed the existence of private conversation threads on Telegram, where men exchange photos of victims, diverted into pornographic images using artificial intelligence.

Revelations that shake South Korea. The discovery of private Telegram groups reveals the extent of cases of online sexual harassment of which women are the first victims. Korean feminist groups have revealed the existence of private chat rooms where more than 200,000 men exchange photos and videos of women taken without their consent or even modified by artificial intelligence to make pornographic videos, called deepfakes. Yet another scandal of this kind after that of the similar chat room “Nth room” in 2018 and 2020, which reveals a form of banality of sexual violence in South Korean society.

From high school to the workplace, testimonies from women who have been victims of online sexual harassment have been pouring into social networks for several days. They denounce private chat rooms where men exchange sexual images taken without consent, or even modified by artificial intelligence.

AI is in fact used to copy the victim’s face from a photo onto a pornographic video in order to create a fake sex tape. A young woman, who prefers to remain anonymous, testifies to the microphone of franceinfo. “When I was in high school, I was harassed and threatened on Facebook by a boy from my school. At that time, my name, my school, my class, my grades, were even revealed. To be honest, I have little hope. It doesn’t matter if I avoid men.

“They are not only using the photos we post on our social networks, they are also hacking the accounts, using our faces in group photos, even our class photos, to create deepfake videos.”

South Korean woman victim of deepfakes

to franceinfo

Since 2018 and the first “Nth room” scandal, victim support associations have been created. Shin Seong-Yeon runs one specializing in cyberbullying and is very familiar with the workings of this system. “These kinds of images are shared in groups, on Telegram or other sites. There are a huge number of them, with tens of thousands of members each.”

“On these groups, there are sellers who exchange photos, videos for money.”

Shin Seong-Yeon, president of a victims’ aid association

to franceinfo

“From a few cents to about seven euros for a picture, it’s really not expensive, but some people have become rich thanks to it”says Shin Seong-Yeon.

A phenomenon aggravated by the lack of legislation condemning this type of harassment. President Yoon Suk-yeol announced that he is taking this wave of crime, which particularly affects minors, seriously. A parliamentary commission will also be set up to potentially establish a new text of legislation.