Telegram cooperates with South Korea deepfake porn crackdown, regulators say

Activists wearing eye masks hold posters reading ‘are peated deepfake sex crimes, the state is an accomplice to’ during a protest against deepfake porn in Seoul on Aug 30, 2024. Super-wired South Korea, with the world's fastest average internet speeds, has long battled sexual cyber violence but experts say a toxic combination of Telegram, AI tech, and lax laws has supercharged the issue, and it is tearing through the country's schools. — AFP

SEOUL: South Korea regulators on Sept 30 hailed productive talks with messaging app Telegram over a deepfake porn crisis in the country.

In August, media and authorities uncovered a sprawling network of Telegram chatrooms in South Korea, often set up within schools and universities, in which users shared AI-generated deepfake porn depicting female students and staff.