Telegram apologizes to South Korea and takes down smutty deepfakes

Controversial social network Telegram has co-operated with South Korean authorities and taken down 25 videos depicting sex crimes.

South Korea's Communications Standards Commission yesterday posted news of Telegram's actions, and reported the platform had apologized for the presence of the content.

The Commission expressed hopes that the incident would be a first step towards a productive relationship – one that includes Telegram providing it with an email hotline to facilitate rapid takedown requests.

"Telegram's statement of position, which has been requested by countries around the world to communicate more actively, is very forward-looking, and it is evaluated that by recognizing the seriousness of the recent incident in our country and clearly showing a will to cooperate in the future, it will greatly open the way to resolving the current situation," the Commission's statement reads after machine translation.

The "current situation" has two meanings in a South Korean context.

One is French authorities last week detaining and then charging Telegram boss Pavel Durov over content carried on the platform, and the rebellious network's lack of response to requests for assistance with investigations into the source of that content.

The other is that South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol last week used a cabinet meeting to declare the nation is suffering a deepfake crisis. As detailed by Human Rights Watch, "South Korea faces an epidemic of digital sex crimes, hundreds of women and girls targeted through deepfake sexual images being shared online." The president sought to mobilize local authorities to fight the revolting material, which is apparently perused by one group with over 220,000 members.

One tactic saw the Communications Standards Commission write to French authorities to seek assistance taming Telegram.

That letter mentioned "serious social damage recently occurring in Korea due to Telegram deepfake sexual crime videos."

Telegram's blog and social feeds have made no mention of its actions in South Korea, so it's hard to know if the apology and assistance offered there represent a change of direction after Durov's detention.

Human Rights Watch last week opined that South Korea's actions are late, and somewhat token.

"Online gender-based violence is an increasing problem globally but is especially widespread in South Korea," the org wrote, adding that authorities and lawmakers "do not take these crimes seriously enough."

The org added that "The South Korean government has known for years that digital sex crimes were rampant and deadly." ®