South Korean civil servant fined for AI-generated deepfake of colleague
A 53-year-old civil servant in Seoul created a deepfake image of a female colleague using generative AI to appear as his romantic partner and posted it on social media multiple times. He was convicted of violating the Sexual Violence Punishment Act and defamation, receiving a fine of 6 million won.
What happened
In November 2025, a 53-year-old male civil servant at Seoul's Guro-gu Office obtained a photograph of a female colleague from the office organizational chart and used generative AI to create a deepfake image depicting them as romantic partners.
He posted the synthetic image four times on his personal SNS profile, depicting the colleague in a close embrace. The victim reported experiencing shame, humiliation and disgust upon seeing the images, and rumours spread within the office afterward.
Reported impact
The victim reported serious sexual shame and humiliation from viewing the synthetic images. Following the incident, office rumours caused her ongoing shame and fear.
Index analysis
The court found that synthetic images can cause sexual shame even without explicit bodily exposure, noting that images with tight-fitting clothing revealing body contours qualify. The defendant claimed the victim could not be identified due to alleged face blindness, which the court rejected as unconvincing.
Governance controls
The defendant claimed to have a mental health condition and admitted the factual basis of the charges. The court considered these factors as mitigating circumstances, along with his status as a first offender.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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