South Korea will increase criminal penalties for sexual deepfakes shared on Telegram

Deepfake pornography creators use photos of women and manipulate them into sexually explicit videos and images without their permission; the shared results then garner hundreds of thousands of views on platforms such as the messaging app Telegram.

On Thursday, the South Korean government and the ruling People Power Party (PPP) pledged to increase the maximum sentence for someone who intends to create and distribute sexually explicit deepfake material from five to seven years. South Korea is also pushing for the establishment of a hotline on the messaging app Telegram, home to many of these deepfakes.

Telegram did not immediately respond to Fortunes Request for comment.

The arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in Paris has reignited controversy in South Korea, where thousands of users share sexually explicit, computer-generated images on the social media platform.

Earlier this month, police investigations uncovered a Telegram group chat with 1,200 members in which users shared not only deepfakes but also personal information such as addresses and student IDs.

A website listing schools and universities affected by the deepfake networks has received three million page views since Tuesday, according to the Wall Street Journal.

On Tuesday, President Yoon Suk-Yeol called for a thorough investigation into digital sex crimes and called an extraordinary cabinet meeting for Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, South Korea's state-funded Advocacy Center for Online Sexual Abuse Victims claimed there have been at least 2,000 victims of deepfake crimes over the past six years — the real number is likely much higher. Over 30% of victims seeking help were minors, according to the state agency.

South Korean celebrities make up over half of all deepfake porn worldwide, according to a 2023 study by cybersecurity firm 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 faces multiple charges in France, including complicity in the distribution of sexual images of children on the app, and is currently banned from leaving the country.

Telegram is widely used throughout Asia, especially in markets such as 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 practices for blocking radical content.

Indonesia again threatened to block Telegram this year, this time because of the distribution of online gambling content.

Indian media also report that the South Asian government is investigating Telegram for its role in extortion and gambling.

According to Demand Sage, a data reporting and analytics solutions provider, there are about 100 million and 27 million Telegram users in India and Indonesia, respectively.