South Korea Investigates Telegram Over Deepfake Sexual Crimes
Deepfake sexual exploitation material proliferated on Telegram in South Korea, with police opening an investigation in September 2024 after the platform became a distribution hub for non-consensual sexual imagery, predominantly involving minors as both perpetrators and victims.
What happened
South Korean police opened a pre-investigation into Telegram in September 2024 after the platform became a hub for distributing deepfake sexual exploitation material. Telegram's monthly active users in South Korea surged by 31.1% in August 2024, with users aged 19 or younger increasing by 50%, attributed to illegal deepfake videos being shared on the platform.
As of August 25, 2024, a support center for digital sexual crime victims had received requests for assistance in 781 deepfake-related cases, with 36.9% involving minors. The police reported 118 deepfake-related complaints in one five-day period, with 73.6% of arrested perpetrators in 2024 being teenagers.
Reported impact
The majority of both perpetrators and victims in deepfake sexual crime cases involving Telegram in South Korea are minors. A US cybersecurity firm reported that 53% of victims in over 90,000 deepfake sexual exploitation items distributed globally were South Korean.
Victims faced obstacles in obtaining relief, with some paying millions of won to private companies for video removal after government systems could not quickly delete exploitation material. An estimated 260,000 illegal image deletion requests from 2020 onward remained unprocessed.
Index analysis
The deepfake sexual exploitation material appeared designed to exploit minors, with Telegram's architecture enabling mass distribution. The platform's teenage user surge and the demographics of cases indicate the technology was creating new vectors for harm against children.
Governance controls
South Korea's government faced criticism for delayed policy responses, with the Women and Family Ministry lacking a confirmed minister for six months. Proposed legislation included 33 bills addressing penalties for sexual violence crimes, but lawmakers were accused of drafting them hastily with overlapping provisions.
Telegram had begun working with South Korea to delete some deepfake sexual exploitation content. The platform updated its user terms to add reporting functions for private chats and group messages.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.