About POP!

POP! is INQUIRER.net’s premier pop culture channel, delivering the latest news in the realm of pop culture, internet culture, social issues, and everything fun, weird, and wired. It is also home to POP! Sessions and POP! Hangout,
OG online entertainment programs in the
Philippines (streaming since 2015).

As the go-to destination for all things ‘in the now’, POP! features and curates the best relevant content for its young audience. It is also a strong advocate of fairness and truth in storytelling.

POP! is operated by INQUIRER.net’s award-winning native advertising team, BrandRoom.

Contact Us

Email us at [email protected]

Address

MRP Building, Mola Corner Pasong Tirad Streets, Brgy La Paz, Makati City

Girl in a jacket

South Korean feminists decry widespread deepfake sex crimes in South Korea

Trigger Warning: Mentions of sexual crimes, sexual assault

A South Korean feminist’s bombshell revelation of the widespread distribution of sexual content on Telegram has gripped the country and social media into a meltdown.

On August 24, 2024, South Korean feminists spoke up about “another Nth Room Crime” in the country, where Korean men were found to be creating and becoming members of chatrooms, where the personal information of women—including their own family members, colleagues, and classmates, are being spread.

A thread exposing and explaining the nature of the crime was posted on X, along with screenshots of actual chats. Men are seen to be uploading pictures of women they know as well as sharing their information.

If others recognize the woman, they create deepfake videos and use those videos to threaten their victims. This method is akin to the “Nth Room” case that blew up in South Korea in 2020, with 103 victims, including 26 minors.

The Telegram chatrooms are seen to have over 100 “themes,” with an estimated number of 220,000 members.

https://twitter.com/f_c_1050/status/1827586880684294341

The whistleblower, whose account was mass-reported by South Korean men angered by the exposé leading to their suspension, has been backed by their fellow South Korean feminists online.

They have also called on the help of international feminists, social media users, and media platforms to raise awareness on the current deepfake crimes that were racking the country to the ground.

In retaliation, Korean men reacted immensely negative about the revelation of the crime. Many criticized women, and said that “women’s rights were promoted too much”.

One user on X even came forward with their story of how they used to be close to their younger brother, up until they caught them sexually assaulting them and filming it. When they told their parents, they reacted indifferently to it and acted like nothing happened.

This story, sadly, is one of the many experiences that South Korean women face on the daily.

As more and more Korean feminists came forward with their stories and more evidence of the deepfake crimes, the clamor for media outlets to pick up on what is currently happening in South Korea became louder.

On August 26, 2024, a screenshot of a representative from JTBC revealed that the media outlet “refused” to accept any tips about the ongoing Telegram deepfake crimes.

This led to numerous online users tagging various media outlets around the world, including BBC, CNN, The Guardian, and more, to cover this large-scale sexual crime.

Following this, South Korean media outlets began reporting on the deepfake sex crimes, and both the South Korean president and the leader of the Opposition have spoken up against these crimes.

Yoon Suk-yeol, in particular, has called on the authorities to “conduct thorough investigations and take steps to eradicate these digital sexual crimes.”

According to the South Korean police, there had been a surge of deepfake sexual exploitation crimes across the nation, accumulating a total of 297 reports from January to July of this year. From the 178 suspects that had been arrested for these charges, 131 of them were minors.

The South Korean education ministry themselves has also raised concerns over the deepfake crime cases. Since January of this year, there had been a reported 196 cases against students and teachers, with 176 of these cases having already been transferred to the authorities.

186 of the victims were students, while the remaining 10 were teachers.

With this, the South Korean government plans to strengthen criminal penalties for sharing sexual deepfakes on platforms such as Telegram.

 

Other POP! stories you might like:

North Korean olympians under investigation after taking selfies with South Korean athletes

SM Entertainment debuts their first British boy group, ‘Dear Alice’

JTBC Newsroom under investigation for airing wrong CCTV footage while reporting BTS SUGA’s DUI case

BTS’ Jungkook and V file defamation lawsuit against Korean YouTuber

Fans express concerns over BINIverse concert perks, copyright claims on fancams

Tags:
About Author

Senior Writer

Related Stories

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Your subscription has been successful.

Subscribe to our newsletter!

By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy.

Popping on POP!