On August 28, media outlet The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that South Korea is the most vulnerable country to deepfake sexual crimes, citing the “2023 Deepfake Status Report” released by cybersecurity firm Security Hero.
The report analyzed 95,820 videos from ten deepfake pornography sites and 85 deepfake channels on video-sharing platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion from July to August last year.
The analysis found that 53% of individuals featured in deepfake pornography were South Korean singers and actors.
Americans accounted for the second-largest share of deepfake victims at 20%, followed by Japan (10%), the UK (6%), China (3%), India (2%), Taiwan (2%), and Israel (1%).
The report emphasized that “South Korea is the country most frequently targeted by deepfake pornography.”
The report also listed the top 10 individuals most frequently targeted by deepfake pornography, eight of whom were South Korean singers. The 1st to 7th and 9th spots were occupied by South Korean singers, while an unnamed Thai singer ranked 8th and a British actor ranked 10th.
The most targeted South Korean singer appeared in 1,595 deepfake sexual exploitation videos, which amassed a total of 5.61 million views. Another South Korean singer was featured in 1,238 such videos, with 3.865 million views.
On average, 99% of deepfake pornography victims are women, and 94% are involved in the entertainment industry.
Most perpetrators creating deepfake pornography are teenagers. The South Korean Ministry of Education is reportedly considering maximum penalties even for offenders as young as 10 years old, according to WSJ.
The widespread distribution of deepfake pornography primarily occurs via Telegram, a messaging app created by Russian-born founder Pavel Durov. French prosecutors arrested Durov at an airport near Paris and charged him with abetting the distribution of child pornography, among other crimes.
Telegram, which can accommodate up to 200,000 users in a single group chat, began sharing ad revenue with the creators of rooms with over 1,000 members as of April this year. Durov’s initial version of the cryptocurrency “Toncoin’ (TON) was also used to pay these creators, with the profits split equally between the room creators and Telegram.
Despite Telegram’s claims that it has deleted content involving child sexual exploitation and criminal information, its staff of only about 50 people was likely insufficient to handle the volume of violations. The app is widely used in former Soviet regions and Iran, and it is temporarily or permanently banned in 31 countries. Telegram is expected to reach 1 billion users next year.
Source: Naver
