Thousands of people protest in Seoul for stricter measures against deepfake crimes

Masked female protesters attend a rally in northeastern Seoul on Saturday. Courtesy of Joint Action to Condemn Misogynistic Violence

By Lee Hae-rin

On Saturday, more than 6,000 people, masked and dressed in black, gathered in Marroninier Park in northeastern Seoul to call for stricter legal measures against deepfake crimes targeting women.

Protesters accused the government of largely neglecting sexual crimes that are rapidly developing with the latest technologies. They argued that current laws are inadequate to tackle such crimes and called for a new legal system and stronger political will to combat them effectively.

“Six years ago, hundreds of thousands of women gathered here in Hyehwa to condemn illegal filming and digital sex crimes and urge the government to take countermeasures, but they have not solved the problem,” the organizers said in a joint statement. “Over time, the damage has gradually increased. Nothing has changed, and even the law and the system are deteriorating.”

Organized by the Joint Action to Condemn Misogynistic Violence, a women’s rights group founded mainly by university students, the protest was held near Hyehwa Station. For many women’s rights activists, it is a symbolic site where tens of thousands of women gathered in 2018 in a series of protests calling for the country’s justice system to be fair to both men and women.

“We told you not to film illegally and now you’re doing deepfake?” the protesters chanted. They called on the National Assembly, the police and all relevant government agencies to take swift and decisive action against the growing number of such criminals.

“The crime of deepfake sexual exploitation is not new,” the group said. “Women have been facing sexual assaults for decades, with their faces and identities exposed in male-dominated online communities, while the state has downplayed the severity of the crime and remained passive. As a result, women across the country are fearful and afraid of being victimized, leading many to abandon their daily lives.”

Protesters hold a rally against the growing number of deepfake digital crimes in Seoul on Saturday. Courtesy of Joint Action to Condemn Misogynistic Violence

Several protesters said they lived in constant fear that such fake online content could ruin their real lives.

“Every time we do group assignments and interact with male students, we have to worry about becoming victims of crime,” said one anonymous university student. “We have to blame a society that has no choice but to suspect all men before telling us not to treat them as potential criminals.”

One of the teenage participants indicated that she was afraid to join the demonstration. She was afraid that her participation would attract unwanted attention from deepfake criminals.

“I came here because I realized that nothing changes by just grieving and being angry,” she said. “Deepfake crime didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s the result of decades of encouraged sex crimes and is a product of deep-rooted patriarchy that has persisted for thousands of years. If the perpetrators aren’t punished, second and third crimes will continue,” she added.

The seriousness of this deepfake sex crime has been further magnified as the perpetrators and victims are largely teenagers.

According to the National Police Agency, of the 318 suspects arrested this year, 251 or 78.9 percent were teenagers, while about 60 percent of the victims of deepfake crimes investigated by police over the past three years from 2021 were also minors.

The protesters also called on the government to take action and introduce stricter regulations for related industries.

“The government should strictly regulate the artificial intelligence industry to prevent unlawful image manipulation,” said another anonymous participant. “Similar crimes will only stop if severe punishments are imposed on workplaces that do not comply with the rules.”