Telegram in trouble in South Korea – allegedly a hub for online sex crimes

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has called for a thorough investigation into digital sex crimes following media reports that sexually explicit Deepfake Pictures and videos of the country’s women were frequently found in telegram Chat rooms.
According to a report by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, deepfake pornography featuring ordinary women has been found to be created and distributed in numerous Telegram chatrooms, a discovery that has sparked widespread fear and anger.
The report also claimed that these chat rooms, some of which had over 133,000 members, targeted a wide range of victims, including minors, students, teachers and even military personnel.

What the South Korean President has to say

Yoon spoke about sex crimes on social media during a televised cabinet meeting. His comments were general in nature and he did not mention Telegram by name.
“It is the exploitation of technology while claiming to protect anonymity. It is a clear criminal act,” Yoon said.
The Korean Communications Standards Commissionthe state media regulator, is scheduled to meet on Wednesday (28 August) to discuss strategies to combat sexually explicit deepfakes.
These reports emerged around the same time as the weekend arrest of Pavel Durov, the Russian-born founder of Telegram. His arrest is part of a French investigation into child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud on the encrypted messaging app.
According to South Korean police, the number of sex crimes committed through deepfakes online has risen sharply. In the first seven months of this year, 297 cases were reported, compared to 180 last year and almost double the number in 2021 when data collection began. Most of the accused are teenagers and people in their 20s.
According to the Military Sexual Abuse Victim Support Center, which supports victims of sexual abuse in the military, sexually explicit deepfakes targeting female military personnel were also found in Telegram chat rooms, Reuters news agency reported.