Telegram has apologised to South Korean authorities for its handling of deepfake pornographic material shared via its messaging app, amid a digital sex crime epidemic in the country.
It comes days after South Korean police said they had launched an investigation into Telegram, accusing it of “abetting” the distribution of such images.
In recent weeks, a large number of Telegram chatrooms – many of them run by teenagers – were found to have been creating sexually explicit “deepfakes” using doctored photographs of young women.
It said it had removed 25 pieces of sexually explicit content as requested by the KCSC. The company also proposed a dedicated email address for future communication with the regulator, which demanded a “hotline” with the platform.
The KCSC welcomed the Telegram’s approach, which it said “recognized the seriousness” of the situation and was “very forward-looking.”
This comes after the South Korean police opened an investigation against Telegram, seeking to determine whether the platform was complicit in the recent wave of illegal deepfake porn targeting young women.
sources – BBC
