Deep-fake Technology Abused to Create "Edited" Sex Videos

Imagine illegal sexual videos with your face edited into it circulating on the internet. Thousands and millions of people online can see the video. Also, imagine that some people you meet in school, workplaces, or even some of your family members at home expose sensitive information and your private life. 

These horrific and terrifying things happen in real life to thousands of Korean youth. 

Today, I am going to introduce you to the controversy about deep-fake technology and illegal sexual videos. 

Recently, a shocking report about the deep fake pornography has stirred the public into enrage. The public discovered that deep fake technology, which is the use of AI to create convincing face images in videos, has been exploited to edit numerous celebrities' and commoners’ faces into pornography. What’s more, most creators of deep-fake pornography use the faces of women they meet in their daily social lives to generate such abominable videos. It was found that over 200 thousand Koreans, mostly in their 10s and 20s, have joined the online platform Telegram for this purpose, and more than 3 million have viewed the videos generated. There are over 2000 known victims and more unknown victims, and more than half of the world’s deep-fake technology victims are found to be Korean females.

Not only workplaces and schools but homes also became a threatening place for women. Among the Telegram deep-fake communities were “Moms” and “Sisters,” shockingly active platforms to share private information and photos of female family members. The participants of those Telegram chat rooms shared their addresses and information about their families to the chatroom for them to be targeted by other users both for deep-fake pornography and even in real life. 

However, even after this terrifying scene was exposed to public view, no actual solution is being discussed. The victims are still suffering from the videos circulating on the internet, and there has even been an increase in Telegram users after the case was exposed. In this situation, only the victims are notified to “be careful.” There should be a harsher measure to punish the offenders and prevent further crime, maybe even by completely banning deep-fake technology.