Telegram Removes Deepfake Videos at South Korea’s Behest – Source: www.databreachtoday.com

Fraud Management & Cybercrime
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Geo Focus: Asia
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Geo-Specific

Social Media Platform Deleted 25 Videos South Korean Government Said Showed Crimes

Jayant Chakravarti (@JayJay_Tech) •
September 4, 2024    

Social media platform Telegram deleted 25 videos the South Korean government said depicted
sex crimes, and regulators reported that site administrators pledged a “relationship of trust.”

The South Korea’s Communications Standards Commission on Tuesday said that Telegram executives apologized and said they hope to build a mutual relationship with Seoul regulators.

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The regulator said it had previously been unable to communicate with Telegram and intends to establish a hotline to ensure urgent action on deepfake videos circulating on the platform. Its complaints match the experiences of nonprofit child sexual material watchdog the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which told NBC in late August that Telegram executives “have been really clear on the team that they have no interest.”

The social media site – which has messaging services built into it – is at the center of a global debate about content moderation, cybercrime and encryption sparked by the Aug. 24 arrest by French authorities of CEO and owner Pavel Durov. He’s been formally charged with a slew of criminal activities including not cooperating with police investigations and complicity in the dissemination of child sexual abuse material. Durov is free on bail after posting 5 million euros, French media reported (see: Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Charged by French Court).

Telegram in an Aug. 25 statement said it “abides by EU laws” and defended its content moderation standards as being “within industry standards.”

“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform,” the company said.

The South Korean regulator’s announcement follows an Aug. 29 “urgent request” to French authorities to make Durov cooperate with South Korean investigations into deepfake videos on the platform that sexualized minors.

South Korea’s national police agency said Tuesday that it launched a preliminary investigation into Telegram after finding proof that the platform enabled criminals to use deepfake technology to make sexualized videos of women and minors, reported Yonhap News Agency.

The police said citizens filed a total of 88 reports of deepfake sexual videos on Telegram since Aug. 26 and that it has identified 24 suspects so far. It also announced that it has apprehended about 400 individuals since 2021 for illegally creating deepfake pornography videos, but only 12 of them were formally arrested for further investigation.