Explicit deepfake videos are destroying lives and exacerbating gender tensions in South Korea

Citizens hold a rally against deepfake sex crimes in Seoul, South Korea on September 27. | Photo credit: AP

Three years after the 30-year-old South Korean woman received a flood of fake images online showing her naked, she is still being treated for trauma. She finds it difficult to talk to men. Using a cell phone brings back the nightmare.

“It completely trampled me, even though it wasn't a direct physical attack on my body,” she said in a telephone interview. For privacy reasons, she did not want to reveal her name.

Many other South Korean women have recently come forward to tell similar stories as South Korea grapples with a surge of non-consensual, explicit deepfake videos and images that are much more accessible and easier to create.

Just last week, Parliament revised a law to make viewing or owning explicit deepfake content illegal.

Most suspected perpetrators in South Korea are teenagers. Observers said the boys targeted friends, relatives and acquaintances – mostly minors – as a prank, out of curiosity or misogyny. The attacks raise serious questions about school programs, but also threaten to exacerbate the already existing gap between men and women.

Explicit deepfake videos in South Korea gained attention after unverified lists of schools where there were victims were spread online in August. Many girls and women have hastily removed photos and videos from their social media accounts. Thousands of young women have protested and demanded tougher measures against explicit deepfake videos. Politicians, scientists and activists have held forums.

“Teenagers (girls) have to feel uncomfortable about whether their male classmates are okay. Their mutual trust has been completely destroyed,” said Shin Kyung-ah, a sociology professor at South Korea’s Hallym University.

Officials including President Yoon Suk Yeol have confirmed a wave of explicit deepfake content on social media. Police have launched a seven-month crackdown. Recent attention to the issue coincided with the arrest in France in August of Pavel Durov, the founder of the messaging app Telegram, on allegations that his platform was being used for illegal activities including the spread of child sexual abuse. South Korea's telecommunications and broadcasting regulator said Monday that Telegram is committed to enforcing a zero-tolerance policy against illegal deepfake content.

Larger scale

Police say they have arrested 387 people for suspected deepfake crimes this year, more than 80% of them teenagers. Separately, the Education Ministry said about 800 students had informed authorities this year about sensitive deepfake content in which they were involved. Experts said the actual scale of explicit deepfake videos in the country is far greater.

U.S. cybersecurity firm Security Hero last year called South Korea “the country most affected by deepfake pornography.” A report says South Korean singers and actresses make up more than half of the people featured in deepfake pornography worldwide.

The prevalence of explicit deepfake videos in South Korea reflects several factors, including heavy use of smartphones; a lack of comprehensive sex and human rights education in schools and inadequate social media regulations for minors, as well as a “misogynistic culture” and social norms that “sexually objectify women,” according to Hong Nam-hee, research professor at the Institute for Urban Humanities at the University of Seoul.