The messaging service, known for hosting many problematic conversations, is under investigation in Korea after refusing to communicate with police in connection with cases involving pornographic deepfakes.
After the arrest in France of its boss Pavel Durov at the end of August, Telegram has been facing a series of legal setbacks. South Korea announced on Monday, September 2, the opening of an investigation into the messaging service because it “would encourage” the dissemination of fake pornographic content, particularly of minors.
According to the head of the South Korean National Police Investigation Bureau, Telegram has reportedly failed to respond to requests for information during various investigations into cases related to the messaging service – including deepfakes pornographic. These contents are montages, made with the help of artificial intelligence, in which faces of individuals are placed on existing photos or videos of a sexual nature. To obtain the faces of their victims, the creators of deepfakes draw on photos shared on social networks.
This investigation, opened by the Seoul police, echoes the situation of Telegram in France. It comes a few days after the arrest on August 28 in Le Bourget (Seine-Saint-Denis) of the platform’s boss, Pavel Durov. After four days of indictment, the Franco-Russian billionaire was released, but remains subject to heavy judicial control, including a ban on leaving French territory.
The facts he was accused of are very similar, since the man was indicted for his role as director of Telegram in the context of a “refusal to communicate the information necessary for interceptions authorized by law” and “complicity in the possession of an image of a minor presenting a child pornography character”. Here again, the justice deplores the difficulty in obtaining information from the messaging service, the Paris prosecutor pointing out the “Almost total lack of response from Telegram to legal requests”.
With its discussion groups that can accommodate up to 200,000 people, Telegram is often accused of increasing the viral potential of false information and the proliferation of hateful, neo-Nazi, pedophile, conspiracy or terrorist content.
156 deepfake porn cases handled in Korea in 2021, already 297 in 2024
The Korean police, meanwhile, announced that they had received 88 reports of pornographic deepfakes, and identified 24 suspects last week. Most of the victims of such cases are girls, 60% of whom are minors. In late August, the South Korean media outlet Hankyoreh revealed that university students were running a Telegram chat group in which “deepfake porn” of their female classmates were circulating. An affair that has provoked strong popular anger in the country.
Online crime is rife in South Korea, from spycams to the publication of “revenge porn” – private pornographic content shared without consent to get revenge. South Korea is even the most targeted country for pornographic deepfakes, according to a 2023 report by the American start-up Security Hero, which specializes in protecting against identity theft. Singers and actresses in the country represent 53% of victims. The country’s police, which handled 156 such cases in 2021, have already recorded 297 this year.
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