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lee yeonjee, 39, is the founder and ceo of a korean charity organization. she is fighting against the "deep fake sex crimes" that are spreading across the country.

some analysts pointed out that the "deep fake crime" of synthesizing women's faces into indecent videos and spreading them widely has caused korean women to "panic" and similar incidents will make women lose their sense of security in their daily lives.

in may this year, a graduate of seoul national university was suspected of using deep fake technology to replace faces and synthesize pornographic photos and videos. he established nearly 200 online chat rooms on the social media platform "telegram" and participated in the production and dissemination of about 1,700 illegal photos and videos.

three months later, another case of deepfake sex crime occurred at inha university in south korea. more than 1,200 participants synthesized deepfake pornographic images on telegram and used these contents to blackmail and humiliate women. in late august, south korean media reported that a large number of chat groups related to schools in many parts of the country appeared on telegram. users uploaded photos of women they knew, and other users would convert these photos into deepfake pornographic content, as well as "humiliation rooms" for specific victims.

preliminary investigations show that 80% of the victims are women. the criminal activities have spread among minors such as junior and senior high school students, college students, teachers and nurses, and even female soldiers are victims.

such news had a great impact on li juanzhi. she saw someone post a message on the social media platform x to investigate the "humiliation room" and find someone to help expose the internal situation. li juanzhi pretended to be a male user, sneaked into it, and collected information. she found that even in free rooms, the spread of illegal deep fake pornographic content has become very serious.

li juanzhi collected the videos and screenshots and gave them to her colleagues, who then handed them over to the investigators. li juanzhi was somewhat comforted to hear that the materials they submitted helped identify the people involved in some cases.

the content in the "humiliation room" made li juanzhi very uncomfortable, and she was even so sick that she couldn't sleep, but she continued to take action. on the one hand, she launched an online petition to strengthen the punishment standards; on the other hand, she held protests on the streets. "the government must take a firm stand to combat crime and implement the 'zero tolerance' punishment law." li juanzhi said.

protests online and offline

at 7 p.m. on september 6, seoul was dark and drizzling, and li juanzhi arrived near bosingak in jongno district at the agreed time. after a while, the protest officially began, with group representatives and individuals taking the stage to read out their statements, and then a group of 500 to 600 people holding black-and-white slogans took to the streets.

those who participated in the protest that night included current teachers, sex education organizations, women's groups, and school students. they shouted slogans such as "let us live a life without fear and anxiety", "regulate platforms that promote deep fake sexual crimes", and "we will overthrow deep fakes that discriminate against women."

the protest lasted about two hours. li juanzhi said that she and her companions also planned to hold a second protest at the hyehwa subway station on september 21. various places have already contacted to rent buses to transport protesters from all over the country to seoul.

offline street protests echoed the voices of korean women on social media. since the news reports of deep fake sex crimes attracted the attention of korean public opinion, many korean women have actively spoken out on social media due to concerns that the incident would be easily covered up, using hashtags such as "school digital sex crimes", "exposing deep fake sex offenders", and "protecting women" to promote the news of "deep fake sex crimes" to attract global attention. many korean women have also sent out help messages through the chinese internet.

"so far, this 'tag protest' campaign has achieved good results. on september 1, tags including 'exposing deep fake sex offenders' exploded on social media platform x, with a total of more than 600,000 posts published, ranking second in the global real-time trend and occupying the top two in the korean real-time trend." li juanzhi said.

in addition to online and offline joint promotion, li juanzhi also began to investigate and study the punishment bill for deep fake crimes. among them, the words "for the purpose of dissemination" particularly caught her attention. an analytical article believes that one of the reasons why it is difficult to punish these deep fake criminals is that it is difficult to prove that they have the intention to disseminate.

recalling the "nth room" incident in south korea, where most people were not punished except for a few key criminals, li juanzhi realized that it was the loopholes in the existing legal system that made large-scale deep fake crimes possible.

during li juanzhi's infiltration into the so-called "humiliation room", she found that although each group room was slightly different, participants usually needed to provide 10 photos of a woman to enter the group or synthesize a photo, which provided new victims for deep fakes. some group rooms will synthesize for free once, and then participants will need to provide "cryptocurrency" or invite new men to enter the room to continue using the service. there are also group rooms that post notices such as "300 photos of female teachers are required" and "high school student discounts."

the "humiliation room" will also find ways to confirm the gender of its participants. some group rooms will require those who want to join the group to deposit 1 won into a bank account, and confirm whether the new entrant is male through the bank account deposit name.

some participants will be charged for synthesizing deep fake images or videos, and some will make profits by selling deep fake content. telegram itself will also generate advertising revenue in rooms with more users. "they share profits like criminal organizations." li juanzhi said that they are an organization driven by interests, and there is no concept of "passive audience".

this gave her the idea of ​​petitioning the national assembly. lee yeon-ji requested that all participants in these group rooms be treated as members of a criminal organization and punished. because south korean law only allows undercover investigations of cases involving children and adolescents, she also hopes that the petition system can be improved to allow undercover investigations of sexual crimes involving adults.

"easy deep fakes" powered by artificial intelligence

at the center of the deepfake sex crime scandal is the messaging app telegram.

this is an encrypted messaging app where users are usually anonymous, rooms can be set to "confidential" mode, and content is quickly deleted without leaving any trace. the original design of "telegram" was intended to protect the privacy of users' speech, but it turned out to be a prime place for rampant criminal behavior.

the technology used to create deep fake content is also not difficult to obtain. siwei lyu, a professor of computer science and engineering at the university at buffalo, state university of new york, explained to the beijing news that the term "deepfake" itself is a hybrid of deep learning and fake media, referring to multimedia texts created using generative artificial intelligence models that rely on deep neural network models, including text, audio, images and videos. generative artificial intelligence systems can be trained on large amounts of unlabeled data, and these models are sufficient to generate convincing content. therefore, the technical threshold has been greatly reduced.

"with artificial intelligence technology, deep fake audiovisual materials can be easily, quickly and cheaply produced, which could have been used for more beneficial purposes, such as the film and retail industries," said bart van der sloot, associate professor at the institute of law, technology and society at tilburg university in the netherlands. unfortunately, the most common application of deep fake technology is pornographic content, "especially when young girls become victims, which can lead to disastrous consequences."

a 2019 report investigating the uses of deep fakes found that 96% of online deep fake content was pornography-related, and this number is still on the rise.

at present, there are many obstacles to combating deep fakes. slote found that when deep fake pornographic content is generated, the victims themselves are often unaware, and the content will not be discovered and acted upon until it is spread through the internet. with so much deep fake pornographic content on the internet, it is difficult for law enforcement agencies to assess whether the content has been consented to by the parties involved, and whether it is real people or people generated by artificial intelligence. even if the criminals are found, the victims are confirmed and the materials are deleted, the damage is often done and it is too late.

li juanzhi believes that post-event tracking is just "closing the fold after the sheep have been bolted" and that platform-level supervision should be strengthened from the source. "if criminals hide in an anonymous platform, then this platform will become a hotbed for crime."

regarding specific measures, lu siwei believes that in the short term, a series of policies and regulations should be introduced to prohibit or restrict deep fake content that is intended to have a harmful impact. the long-term solution should return to the technology itself, and further develop technology for automatically detecting, deleting or tracking deep fake content.

after deepfake crimes sparked a discussion in south korea, woo jong-soo, director of the national investigation headquarters of the national police agency, said at a regular press conference on september 2, local time, that the police had begun a pre-investigation investigation into the social media platform telegram on suspicion of "assisting in deepfake crimes." telegram itself also pledged to actively combat harmful content on the platform.

misogyny remains unresolved

beyond the incident, the outside world began to question why south korea became a hotbed of deep fakes.

a 2023 global deepfake report by security hero, a us startup focused on identity theft protection, showed that south korea is the top target for deepfake pornographic content, with south korean singers and actresses accounting for 53% of the characters in such deepfake works.

deep fake sex crimes are also becoming increasingly rampant in south korea, with 156 cases in 2021, 160 cases in 2022, and 180 cases last year. from january to july this year, there were 297 sex crimes involving deep fakes.

observers believe that the deepfake scandal, which seemed to explode suddenly, may have been lurking beneath the surface and reflects long-standing issues of sexism.

south korea has the highest level of education among oecd countries, but the lowest labor force participation rate. south korea's gender wage gap ranks first among the 35 oecd member countries, at 31.2%.

deep fakes have become as popular as entertainment games for reasons such as "just for fun" and "using photos of acquaintances makes it more realistic." some analysts say that whether it is deep fake sex crimes or korean women being secretly photographed by tiny hidden cameras in bathrooms or dressing rooms, these are the latest forms of "misogyny" that have emerged with the development of technology.

this coincides with li juanzhi's observation.

the women's issue she initially focused on was not deep fake sex crimes, but gender equality in the field of driving.

li juanzhi found that korean women often encounter discrimination when learning to drive. for example, when women want to get a class i driver's license (note: a high-level driver's license that can drive a large car), they will be persuaded to change to a class ii driver's license. even if they successfully get a driver's license, it is not easy for women to obtain information on dealing with traffic accidents, car insurance, car repairs, etc. female drivers are often afraid of driving due to lack of information, and women with poor driving skills are also derogatorily called "ms. kim."

with the help of the ministry of gender equality and family affairs of south korea, in 2020, lee juanzhi founded the "unniecar" female driving project, which provides lectures and books to help women who are just starting to drive get safe and accurate information without "male preaching". in recent years, the scope of women's social issues that lee juanzhi has focused on has also been expanding, emphasizing the protection of women's rights.

lee juanzhi believes that from driving discrimination to deep fake sex crimes, the "misogyny" in korean society has not been effectively addressed. not only that, "misogyny" has been used politically, further triggering resentment among male groups and becoming a way for politicians to win votes. "today, there are a large number of young men in their teens and twenties who objectify and alienate women instead of establishing equal and natural relationships between the sexes. it is this environment that allows the 'nth room' and deep fake sex crimes to occur."

after the deep fake scandal was exposed, 84 korean women's rights organizations signed a statement, pointing out that discrimination is the crux of the problem. "the root cause of this phenomenon is structural gender discrimination, and the solution is to achieve gender equality."

in response to the endless stream of cases and calls from social groups, south korean president yoon seok-yeol said that relying on anonymity to maliciously use deep fake technology is a criminal act, and he hopes that relevant departments will conduct a thorough investigation and completely eradicate this digital technology crime.

the south korean government also plans to strengthen penalties for deep fake crimes. kim sang-hoon, chairman of the policy committee of the ruling people's power party, said that the people's power party and the south korean government plan to promote legislation to increase the maximum penalty for crimes such as spreading false videos from 5 years to 7 years.

however, li juanzhi still has doubts about the south korean government's commitment and is worried whether the actions will be implemented.

this suspicion is not without basis. during the 2022 presidential campaign, yoon seok-yeol has been denying the existence of structural gender discrimination in south korea, blaming feminism for the low birth rate, and claiming to impose harsher penalties on false sexual assault reports. after yoon seok-yeol came to power, the south korean government also pushed to remove the term "gender equality" from school textbooks and canceled funding for projects to combat everyday gender discrimination.

"for a long time, i have not seen the government introduce policies to address gender discrimination. instead, they are undermining the progress made in gender equality actions." li juanzhi said that south korea's birth rate has dropped to one of the lowest levels in the world. if "misogyny" is not seriously addressed, sexual crimes will continue to rise. if sexual crimes are not severely punished, criminals will use new technologies to commit more complex crimes in the future, and south korean society will not be prepared at all.

slote said that in order to fundamentally deal with deep fake sex crimes, all links must be linked or indispensable. the government needs to make response work a priority, have clear punishment standards, set benchmark cases, and if necessary, set up a special team to deal with deep fake sex crimes. schools and workplaces also need to carry out education on "non-consensual online pornography." internet service providers need to monitor the platform to prevent the spread of any deep fake pornographic content, and warn users that once they spread deep fake pornographic content through their service platform, they will be permanently removed.

on september 7, li juanzhi told the beijing news reporter that the petition she submitted to the national assembly had obtained the required 50,000 consents, and the relevant departments of the south korean government were obliged to respond to the petition.

the ball has been kicked to the south korean government, "i am looking forward to their next move," said li juanzhi.

beijing news reporter luan ruoxi

editor: hu jie proofreader: zhang yanjun