Oh Se-hoon "Deepfake created in 7 seconds... Support for deletion should be expanded to local governments"

Attended Deepfake Digital Sexual Crime Prevention Forum
Concerns Over Investigation Challenges in Identifying Perpetrators
"Urging Legal Amendments for Seoul City's Deletion Support Mechanism"

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon recently argued that support for the deletion of victim videos related to deepfake sexual crimes, which have emerged as a social issue, should be expanded from the national government to local governments.

On the morning of the 3rd, Mayor Oh attended the policy forum titled "Policy Discussion for the Prevention and Response to Deepfake Digital Sexual Crimes," hosted by Rep. Jo Eun-hee of the People Power Party and the Korea Women's Human Rights Institute. He urged the establishment of such measures, stating, "Deepfake videos take only 7 seconds to produce, and due to the structure that allows anyone to easily participate from production to distribution, anyone can become a victim, showing a different pattern from previous digital sexual crimes."

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon is speaking at the 'Policy Forum for the Prevention and Countermeasures of Deepfake Digital Sex Crimes' hosted by People Power Party lawmaker Jo Eun-hee at the National Assembly Members' Office Building on the morning of the 3rd.
[Photo by Seoul City]

On that day, Mayor Oh expressed concern, saying, "Recently, deepfake videos that synthesize pornographic content onto the faces of specific individuals using artificial intelligence (AI) have been indiscriminately created and distributed, resulting in victims regardless of gender, and the resulting anxiety is spreading throughout society." He also pointed out the difficulty in identifying perpetrators due to Telegram’s servers being located overseas, making investigations challenging.

He emphasized the need for institutional measures in Seoul to support the deletion of deepfake victim videos. Mayor Oh said, "Since Seoul also needs institutional measures to support the deletion of deepfake victim videos, I strongly urge the revision of laws to expand the deletion support authority from the national government to local governments."

He also shared the current support status in Seoul. He explained the city's efforts to respond to digital sexual crimes, including the opening of the 'Seoul Digital Sexual Crime Safety Support Center' in 2022 and the establishment of the 'Digital Sexual Crime SOS Counseling' window. Additionally, he mentioned the development of 'Seoul Safe Eye,' an AI deepfake detection technology using facial matching, and plans to build an 'AI Automated Reporting System' within the year.

Previously, Seoul City launched a 'hotline' with the Korea Communications Standards Commission to delete deepfake pornographic videos within 24 hours. Until now, the Seoul Digital Sexual Crime Safety Support Center had to submit evidence each time it requested deletion from the commission, but now, through system linkage, it can request the deletion of a large number of cases at once.