Lee Jun-seok "Deepfake Sexual Crimes Not That Serious... Worried About Overregulation"

"Deepfake Sexual Crime Threat Is Overestimated"
"220,000 Users Represent the Combined Global Scale"

Lee Jun-seok, a member of the Reform New Party, claimed that the threat of deepfakes is being overestimated. The photo shows Lee delivering a greeting at the 1st party convention held at the National Assembly Members' Office Building last May.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

As the fear of so-called 'deepfake' sex crimes?where explicit content is synthesized onto acquaintances' faces and distributed?spreads nationwide, Lee Jun-seok, a lawmaker from the Reform New Party, claimed that "the threat of deepfakes is being overestimated."

According to political circles on the 29th, Lee attended the full meeting of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee the previous afternoon and addressed Kang Do-hyun, the 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, saying, "Is there any practical method besides blocking Telegram? I am concerned that it might end with excessive regulation."

Regarding President Yoon Seok-yeol's order for a strong response to group sex crimes involving illegal synthesized materials the day before, Lee said, "It is good that the president spoke with the intention of setting early countermeasures, but on the other hand, there seems to be a possibility of excessive regulation." He added, "Since this is an issue the president is interested in, it seems they will try to come up with some measures. Jokingly, people say 'the way to eliminate school violence is to eliminate schools.' I think a technically feasible proposal should be made."

Earlier, President Yoon Seok-yeol had stated about deepfake videos, "They may be dismissed as mere pranks, but they are clearly criminal acts abusing technology under the shield of anonymity," and instructed, "Relevant authorities should thoroughly investigate and root out digital sex crimes."

Lee expressed concern, saying, "Because the government ordered a rapid response, as soon as a report was received in Gwangju that a teenage student possessed explicit content synthesized onto a classmate's face, the student was investigated immediately. I don't know what the actual investigation results will be, but it is a sensitive situation where a single word can lead to an investigation of a classmate."

In particular, Lee emphasized that reports stating "the number of Telegram deepfake chatroom users has reached about 220,000" are "overestimating the threat." He explained that Telegram chatrooms were not created domestically but by foreign developers, and the 220,000 figure includes users worldwide, not just Koreans. Lee urged, "I ask the Korea Communications Commission to be careful not to exaggerate the anxiety about deepfake sex crimes beyond reality."

In response to Lee's remarks, Park Ji-hyun, former emergency committee member of the Democratic Party who exposed the 'Nth Room' case, strongly criticized him, saying, "He has no minimum common sense." On the 28th, through her Facebook, she stated, "Mentioning 'excessive regulation' first before preventing the recurrence of deepfake victims is not the attitude of a politician with basic common sense," and questioned, "If temporary blocking measures are called excessive regulation when Telegram does not cooperate with investigations, then what can be done to protect victims and identify perpetrators?" She also targeted the Reform New Party, saying, "Do not obscure the essence by mentioning the number of people involved and gender conflicts."