South Korean police have reportedly initiated an investigation into Telegram that can take a look at whether or not the encrypted messaging app has been complicit within the distribution of sexually express deepfake content material, Yonhap news company mentioned Monday.
Yonhap quoted the pinnacle of the National Office of Investigation. The workplace’s cyber investigation bureau declined to touch upon the report.
The launch of an investigation would comply with public and political outrage over digital deepfake pornography that includes South Korean ladies, with native media reporting such content material is commonly present in Telegram chatrooms.
It would additionally go one step additional than feedback from the commissioner of the National Policy Agency, Cho Ji-ho, earlier on Monday, who mentioned his company was reviewing whether or not to research safe messaging apps by charging them with “abetting” crimes.
Authorities in South Korea final week pledged a crackdown on sexually exploitative deepfake crimes – one which has coincided with a French investigation into Pavel Durov, Telegram’s Russian-born founder, as authorities there probe organized crime on the platform.
Asked in parliament about legal actions on Telegram, Cho mentioned investigations into safe message suppliers have confirmed difficult and time-consuming.
Telegram didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for touch upon Monday. Last week, it mentioned it actively moderates dangerous content material on its platform, together with unlawful pornography.
South Korea is the nation most focused by deepfake pornography, with its singers and actresses constituting 53% of the people featured in such deepfakes, in keeping with a 2023 report on deepfakes globally by Security Hero, a U.S. startup targeted on identification theft safety.
Police within the nation say the variety of deepfake intercourse crime circumstances they’ve taken on to this point this 12 months has surged to 297. That compares to 156 for all of 2021 when knowledge was first collated. Most victims and perpetrators are youngsters, they are saying.
In addition to urging social media companies to cooperate with the deleting and blocking such content material extra actively, South Korea’s media regulator has requested French authorities to collaborate recurrently with Telegram-related issues and facilitate direct communication with Telegram.
Additionally, the South Korean authorities mentioned on Friday it should push for stricter legal guidelines to make the acquisition or viewing of sexually exploitative deepfakes a legal act.
Source: www.dailysabah.com