Enforcement of the 2021 Nth Room Prevention Act
Mandatory Measures to Prevent Distribution of Pornographic Content on Platforms
Telegram Excluded from Regulatory Scope
Telegram has become a concentrated target for deepfake pornography because it falls into a regulatory blind spot. Currently, domestic platforms such as KakaoTalk Open Chat rooms and Naver community boards implement technical measures to prevent the distribution of illegal filming or pornographic materials. This has been the case since the so-called ‘Nth Room Prevention Act (Amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act, etc.)’ was enacted in 2021. However, the foreign messenger Telegram, which was the stage for the Nth Room incident and the recent deepfake scandal, is not subject to the Nth Room Prevention Act.
According to the amended law, internet businesses operating in Korea with annual sales of over 1 billion KRW or more than 100,000 daily users must apply filtering technology to prevent the distribution of pornographic materials. If a post suspected of illegal filming is found, distribution must be blocked and reported to relevant authorities. Additionally, they must submit an annual transparency report on the handling of illegal filming materials to the Korea Communications Commission. If deletion and blocking measures for illegal filming materials are intentionally not implemented, differential fines of up to 3% of sales may be imposed.
Not only large platforms like Naver and Kakao but also community sites such as DC Inside and Ppomppu are subject to regulation. Even if the sales scale is less than 1 billion KRW, if illegal filming materials frequently appear on the service and correction requests are received, the regulation applies.
On the other hand, Telegram is not subject to the Nth Room Prevention Act. This is because there is no corporation or agent in Korea to enforce penalties. Since Telegram operates as private chat rooms between individuals, it is not considered ‘information distributed publicly to the general public,’ which is subject to regulation.
Under the Nth Room Prevention Act, domestic platforms take various preemptive measures. Naver operates ‘Green-eye,’ an artificial intelligence (AI) technology that filters pornographic content in real time. It calculates a pornography index from images and videos included in posts in real time. If content is judged to be provocative, immediate deletion or other measures are taken. Green-eye automatically detects over 90% of provocative images or videos, and dedicated personnel are deployed for additional review if necessary.
Kakao monitors deepfake distribution through open chats, the Daum portal, and public boards within Kakao. They apply a system called ‘ARGOS’ to inspect image and video content, deleting or restricting posts judged to be illegal filming materials. For general chats where monitoring is impossible, after-the-fact measures are taken upon user reports. However, if illegal synthetic material distribution or provision is detected, Kakao responds strongly by permanently restricting the use of the entire KakaoTalk service.
Additionally, members of the Korea Internet Self-Governance Organization (KISO), including Naver, Kakao, and SK Communications, have designated deepfake-related search terms as youth protection search terms since January. When entering deepfake-related search terms such as ‘jininnungyok’ (defamation of acquaintances) or ‘jininhapseong’ (synthesis of acquaintances), related information is blocked.
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