A graduate student and his associates arrested for creating 'deepfake' sexual exploitation material using the faces of university alumni
The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency's Cyber Crime Investigation Unit has arrested a group that synthesized the faces of university alumni and their female acquaintances onto nude photographs and distributed them via Telegram.
On the 2nd, the police announced that they had arrested graduate student A (24) along with 8 others for violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes, while 7 others including B (25) were booked without detention.
A and his group are accused of producing sexual exploitation material 90 times from November 2022 to August last year and distributing it over 270 times through a so-called 'acquaintance humiliation room' created on Telegram.
Investigations revealed that A used 'deepfake' technology utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) or photo editing programs to combine the faces of 17 female university alumni with nude photos of other women.
After graduating from the university, A reportedly pursued further studies at a different graduate school.
Operating a 'public humiliation room' by stealing victims’ personal information
Reports indicate that the victims included not only university alumni but also acquaintances of A and many unknown women.
A and his co-defendants, other graduate students, illegally used photos and personal information of the victims posted on Instagram and Naver Blog to produce sexual exploitation material.
Subsequently, this material was distributed through '00 University 000 Public Humiliation Room,' created using the names of the victims and the names of the universities they were attending.
The method of operation was meticulous. The chat room organizer promoted the Telegram address online, leading those who saw it to enter the acquaintance humiliation room and view the sexual exploitation material together.
A granted admin rights to the active participants in the chat room, while encouraging the other participants to distribute the sexual exploitation material to other Telegram rooms.
The police first received a report from a victim in April 2023, and as more reports followed, they formed a dedicated team of 26 investigators to continue the investigation.
A police official stated, “The suspects researched police investigation techniques in their spare time and thoroughly utilized Telegram, which has servers overseas, to evade detection. We will continue to actively protect victims by working with the Digital Sexual Crime Victim Support Center to remove sexual crime content from the internet.”
Image source: AI images to aid understanding of the article / bing image creator, material images to aid understanding of the article / gettyimagesbank
