Stigmatization and criticism after deepfake victims in South Korea

SEOUL – As South Korean police have recently received hundreds of reports of the distribution and creation of sexually explicit deepfake images and videos, calls are growing for increased protection and harsher punishment for perpetrators.

According to the Korean National Police Agency, authorities have seen a huge increase in the number of reports from victims of deepfake pornography since announcing a seven-month crackdown on digital sex crimes from August 27 to March 31, 2025.

A total of 118 reports were received between August 26 and September 3. This is a tenfold increase compared to the 297 cases reported in the seven months between January and July.

Deepfakes – digitally manipulated or generated photos that are indistinguishable from real images – have recently come under criticism when local media reported on numerous Telegram chatrooms that were spreading sexually explicit deepfake content generated and manipulated using artificial intelligence.

Groups with ties to specific regions, university campuses, middle and high schools, and military units were responsible for creating the deepfake content.

Following a recent flood of media reports and police reports from victims of the crime, some internet users are claiming that the public and government are “overreacting” to deepfake pornography.

On September 4, news channel YTN reported that such comments were written under its news report. One comment read: “Honestly, I don't even understand why deepfake pornography is such a big deal.” Another comment read: “It's just graphics and not real people. Can we really say there are victims here?”

On online forums such as DC Inside, several posts claimed that the deepfake pornography controversy in South Korea had been “blown out of proportion,” with one post even stating, “It's more of a bummer that technology hasn't advanced enough to make (deepfake pornography) better.” Several other posts made derogatory comments about the victims and activists who participated in recent protests against deepfake pornography.

“Because such comments diminish the shame and embarrassment that victims of deepfake pornography often feel, they may also constitute a form of secondary victimization,” human rights lawyer Min Go-eun told The Korea Herald.

Secondary victimization refers to additional trauma or harm experienced by a victim after the initial crime, usually due to negative reactions from others, such as callousness, blame, or rejection.

Outside of the internet, the Gwangju Nambu Police Station has been criticized for its deepfake sex crime prevention campaign, which used an image of a group pointing fingers at a victim. The Justice Ministry discourages the use of such images because they suggest that victims are responsible for the sex crimes committed against them.

Local media also reported on a middle school in Gwangju, where six students who were victims of deepfake pornography said they suffered secondary victimization because they were not separated from the perpetrators.

Some students were forced to interact with the perpetrator on their way to and from various classrooms. The father of one victim told Yonhap news agency that his daughter is “suffering great emotional distress.”