Korean police launch internal investigation into Telegram for allegedly ‘aiding and abetting’ deepfake sex crimes – Korea Herald view

South Korean police have launched an internal investigation into Telegram after the company was accused of “complicity and aiding” in online sex crimes using deepfake technology.

Woo Jong-soo, head of the National Bureau of Investigation, told reporters on Monday that police had launched an unofficial and preliminary investigation into Telegram on suspicion of “complicity and aiding and abetting crimes related to deepfake pornography.”

“Investigating Telegram is difficult because they do not share account information and other forms of personal information with investigators or law enforcement agencies in Korea and other countries,” Woo said.

“However, it is not true that we cannot catch the actual perpetrators of the crimes because Telegram did not give us the material for investigation. We (the Korean police) have our own investigation techniques and are doing our best to investigate,” he continued.

Woo noted that Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov was recently arrested in France, adding that police will explore working with French authorities and other international organizations to see how Durov's arrest can be used to find evidence that Telegram aided and abetted the chatrooms where hundreds of thousands of members distributed deepfake porn images.

Durov was arrested on August 28 in Paris, France, on charges of failing to prevent illegal transactions by an organized group, facilitating the distribution of material on child sexual abuse, drug trafficking and fraud, and refusing to cooperate with law enforcement.

This is also the first time that Korean police have launched an investigation into Telegram – let alone a company – since the app first came under fire in the Nth Room criminal case in 2019, when reports of extortion, human trafficking and the distribution of sexually exploitative videos on Telegram emerged.

According to the National Office of Investigation of the Korean National Police Agency, a total of 88 reports of deepfake pornography were filed from August 26 to 29. This is also a tenfold increase compared to the reports from January to July, which totaled 297 cases in the seven months. Among the 88 reports, 24 suspects were identified by the police, as many victims filed reports identifying the suspects.

Police also plan to charge those who created the chatrooms for deepfake bots that generate deepfake pornography from ordinary photos with aiding and abetting the crime. Police officers will also expand the scope of undercover investigations to effectively investigate deepfake pornography, as undercover investigations into digital sex crimes can only be conducted in crimes involving underage victims – making it difficult to investigate deepfake pornography crimes against adults.

Meanwhile, local media reports have revealed an online community of perpetrators involved in the creation and distribution of deepfake pornography.

Users of the School Violence Deepfake Taskforce shared their experiences with creating and distributing deepfake pornography on Telegram, while also offering tips on how to deal with police investigations and avoid potential penalties.

Some posts say, “I ran two deepfake porn chatrooms on Telegram… I'm still a high school student, am I going to get in big trouble?” and “I've only watched the (deepfake) videos, but there's so much fuss about it these days that I'm worried.”

Some posts expressed confidence that most offenders would not be punished because it was “difficult to identify every user in the chatroom and determine who did what in which chatroom.”

Regarding this situation, forensic psychologist Lee Soo-jung told The Korea Herald that it is necessary not only to impose harsher penalties for those who create, distribute and view sexually exploitative deepfake content, but also to “regulate platforms that can be used for criminal activities.”

“Since 2022, laws have been enacted abroad – especially in Europe – to hold online platforms accountable for distributing sexually exploitative content. In Korea, however, such platforms are monitored but cannot be punished by law,” Lee said.