South Korea's Telegram Compliance: A Shift in Digital Regulation

Deepfake porn scandal: Telegram apologises to South Korea

Authorities say Telegram has since removed such videos from its platform. In a statement to South Korea's Communications Standards Commission (KCSC), Telegram said the situation was "unfortunate", adding that it "apologised if there had been an element of misunderstanding". It also confirmed that it had taken down 25 such videos as requested by KCSC. In its latest statement to KCSC, Telegram also proposed an email address dedicated to future communication with the regulator. KCSC described the company's approach as "very forward-looking" and said Telegram has "acknowledged the seriousness" of the situation. Deepfakes are generated using artificial intelligence, and often combine the face of a real person with a fake body. The recent deepfake crisis has been met with outrage in South Korea, after journalists discovered police were investigating deepfake porn rings at two of the country's major universities. It later emerged that police received 118 reports of such videos in the last five days. Seven suspects, six of whom are teenagers, have been questioned by the police in the past week. The chat groups were linked to individual schools and universities across the country. Many of their victims were students and teachers known to the perpetrators. In South Korea, those found guilty of creating sexually explicit deepfakes can be jailed for up to five years and fined up to 50 million won ($37,500; £28,300). These discoveries in South Korea follow the arrest of the Russian-born founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, in France, on allegations that child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud were taking place on the messaging app. Mr Durov has since been charged. Last Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol had instructed authorities to "thoroughly investigate and address these digital sex crimes to eradicate them". Women's rights activists have accused South Korean authorities of allowing sexual abuse to take place on Telegram. In 2019, it was discovered that a sex ring had used the app to blackmail dozens of women and children to film pornographic content. The ring leader Cho Ju-bin, who was then 20, was sentenced to 42 years in jail.

South Korea says Telegram complying with regulators

AFP - Messaging app Telegram removed some illegal material following a request by South Korean regulators, the Yonhap news agency reported yesterday. A South Korean broadcaster revealed last month that university students were running an illegal Telegram chatroom, where they shared deepfake material. Other chatrooms were subsequently discovered, sparking public outrage. Police said on Monday they had initiated an investigation into the Dubai-based messaging company, accusing it of "abetting" the distribution of deepfake material, including artificial intelligence (AI)-generated images. Regulators had requested Telegram remove some of the offensive material, and the app has informed the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) that it had taken down 25 pieces of content, Yonhap reported yesterday. "Telegram also apologised for miscommunication regarding the issue and shared an exclusive email address for future communication with the media watchdog," Yonhap reported, citing the KCSC. Perpetrators of the recent spate of deepfake crimes have reportedly used social media platforms such as Instagram to save or screen-capture photos of victims. This has fuelled public anger and prompted President Yoon Suk Yeol, a former prosecutor, to call on officials to "thoroughly investigate and address these digital crimes to eradicate them completely".