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.
🚨 BREAKING: Another Nth Room Crime in Korea 🚨
Korean men have been creating multiple chatrooms using Telegram and spreading personal information of women around them; including their family members, coworkers, and classmates. https://t.co/wj6Juj6Iif
— 숨 (@f_c_1050) August 24, 2024
They also categorized victims by the regions they live in.
There are so many rooms of Daegu that they made "Room Season 4" for only Daegu itself.The offenders entered those rooms by sending 10 pics of a victim and making sexual deep fake vids using those pics.
— 숨 (@f_c_1050) August 24, 2024
The offenders gathered in a specific room by sending the victims basic information to the room
(Jane Doe/Name of her school/Her year of birth):
If they think they know the same person, they uploaded the victim's pics and made deep fake vids. https://t.co/T3FxUDAg9T— 숨 (@f_c_1050) August 24, 2024
The offenders made chatrooms for each school and approached the victims, asking if they were the ones shown on the vids.
They also threatened the victims using those vids, and this is very similar to the strategy used by Nth Room criminals. https://t.co/oBta3RNTdS— 숨 (@f_c_1050) August 24, 2024
Please retweet the tweets above and raise awareness for this issue. We need everybody's help outside Korea as well.#Awareness #harassment #sexualharassement #KoreanUpdates #Korea #CrimeAgainstWomen #Kpop#CrimesAgainstHumanity
— 숨 (@f_c_1050) August 24, 2024
There is a room with 1932 members only for humiliating the victims.
The subcategories for this room are:
Cousins
Mothers
Acquaintances
Sisters
They use pics of victims in those categories. They are even using their family members for the crimes.https://t.co/ORVdC2EEBe
— 숨 (@f_c_1050) August 24, 2024
The offenders also made the victims consume drugs to sexually assault them. https://t.co/ahXqjjqOj7
— 숨 (@f_c_1050) August 24, 2024
The criminals share almost all personal information of the victims within those Telegram channels, including the victim's name, school, year of birth, detailed home address, what grade and class they are in, Instagram ID, and phone number.https://t.co/gj2ky91QoC
— 숨 (@f_c_1050) August 24, 2024
https://twitter.com/f_c_1050/status/1827586880684294341
TW: Stalking, Sexual abuse, Sexual Harassment, Cyberbullying
It is getting serious in Ansan-si
There are the names of 66 victims in this ONE picture
They are ALL MINORS
They even stalked the victims irlHere is a translation of the chatroomhttps://t.co/xGRtPvkAJG pic.twitter.com/RFMcLRsQ8R
— 숨 (@f_c_1050) August 25, 2024
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.
글을 잘못 써서 해석이 완전히 뒤바껴갖고 재업
Do you know about the famous "지인능욕" for men in South Korea? pic.twitter.com/j99PG1JcG0
— 도파민아카이브 (@michinarchive) August 26, 2024
Why are so many Korean women suddenly asking for help from foreigners all at once? Why do Korean women ask for help in a foreign language?
Read the tweet I quoted.
She wrote a tweet in a 🧵🧵🧵 https://t.co/xrE1oeIGyH pic.twitter.com/QgDP0MGuPc— (cat) 페미니즘=여성인권운동 (@dvu84djp) August 25, 2024
1/ A deepfake porn crisis is gripping S. Korea following revelations of the widespread creation/distribution of such content on Telegram, affecting women of all ages. Victims incl. minors, students, teachers etc. Authorities struggling to contain spread. https://t.co/V5KbHhPuxh
— Raphael Rashid (@koryodynasty) August 26, 2024
korean women are asking people outside the country to spread the abuse they face every day because their own country trying to bury and protect their abusers https://t.co/uUf9mBWAzY
— ⁷ (@srpentlne) August 25, 2024
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”.
Korean guys' reactions toward this crime pic.twitter.com/yxjqogGjvf
— 숨 (@f_c_1050) August 26, 2024
— 숨 (@f_c_1050) August 26, 2024
— 숨 (@f_c_1050) August 26, 2024
I just received this from Korea. They want international people to know how horrible the situation is in Korea.
I’m disgusted and saddened.
한국아이가 이것도 보냈어.. 읽는것도 힘들다.. pic.twitter.com/Cw8MabRc9v
— Woman of Leisure (@WomenLeisure) August 27, 2024
Korean incel is having a seizure because she keeps uploading Telegram stories on Instagram stories https://t.co/fzB3YvVT9M pic.twitter.com/vcYsFB8HO8
— 깡용🚙 (@booknliving) August 26, 2024
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.
한살터울 남동생이 저지랄해서 죽고싶었던 적이 있었습니다. 걔나 저나 중학생이었구요.
남들이 부러워할 정도로 사이 정말정말 좋았습니다. 첫번째는 너무 놀랬기도 하고 어떻게 해야할지를 몰라 모르는 척 넘겼습니다. 이점을 정말 후회해요. 제가 낮잠을 자는 사이, 주말 오후였고 부모님이 모두 https://t.co/Vb9f21yDhf— 엥 (@army_91_) August 24, 2024
I'm posting this translation. Please help spread the word about the dangers and horrors of Korean men to the world.
: "There was a time when my younger brother, who's just a year younger than me, made me feel so awful that I wanted to die. We were both in middle school at the… https://t.co/Agzhd9X7Hl— Juni 🌊 (@sohnhj11) August 24, 2024
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.
The Korean media outlet refused to accept tips about the incident. https://t.co/uN38B6BmVf pic.twitter.com/SIHFz4TWg5
— 두잇 (@doit8e) August 26, 2024
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.
@guardian @BBC @BBCWorld @CNN please cover the story of this large scale sexual crime ring in korea and help the victims whose voices are being silenced
— tana⁷ || 🪐 (@tanavanas) August 26, 2024
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.”
Now all the Korean news is reporting on the deepfake incident. And the South Korean president and opposition leader also ordered a resolution to this incident
This miracle happened in just a few days because feminists overseas showed solidarity with feminists in the South 🧵 https://t.co/0iCC5loZLq pic.twitter.com/1vfbhxzS8i
— (cat) 페미니즘=여성인권운동 (@dvu84djp) August 27, 2024
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.
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