SEOUL, Sep 4 : Telegram has apologised to the South Korean authorities for its handling of deepfake pornographic material shared via its messaging app, amid a digital sex crime epidemic in the country, media reports said.
South Korean police have launched an investigation against Telegram, accusing it of “abetting” the distribution of such images, the BBC reported.
According to reports, Telegram chatrooms, often run by teenagers, have been found to be creating explicit sexual “deepfakes” using doctored photographs of young women.
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.”
According to reports, Telegram confirmed removing 25 such videos requested by KCSC and proposed an email address for 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, reports said.
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.
Police have received 118 reports of videos in the last five days, and seven suspects, six of whom are teenagers, have been questioned in the past week, BBC reports said.
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).
Telegram founder Pavel Durov, arrested in France, has been found in South Korea following allegations of child pornography, drug trafficking, and fraud on the messaging app.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday directed authorities to thoroughly investigate and address digital sex crimes to eradicate them.
Women’s rights activists have accused South Korean authorities of allowing sexual abuse to take place on Telegram, reports added.
(UNI)
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