Police Face Backlash for Roughly Subduing Female BJ... Turns Out It Was a "Deception"

Confusion Grows Amid Body Camera Expansion
National Police Agency Launches Preliminary Investigation

Recently, a video showing police officers aggressively subduing an internet broadcaster (BJ) spread rapidly online, sparking controversy. Many internet users who saw the video criticized the police for "excessively suppressing citizens' freedoms," but it was later revealed that the footage was a fake video created using artificial intelligence (AI). The misunderstanding appears to have been exacerbated by the recent expansion of police body camera adoption.

Artificial intelligence (AI) fake video created to look like it was filmed with a police body camera. Instagram

According to Yonhap News on December 23, more than 50 of these problematic videos have recently been posted on major social networking services (SNS) such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. The videos are staged to look like body camera footage of police officers responding to incidents such as assaults, arguments, and drunk driving checkpoints.

Representative examples include a scene in which a BJ broadcasting near Bucheon Station is arrested after resisting and swearing at police who ask him to end his broadcast, and a scene where a student in a school uniform mocks the police by saying, "The police secretly film people," after being reprimanded for smoking on the street. All of these videos are elaborately staged to appear as real incidents, but are actually fabricated using AI.

"Isn't this excessive force?"... Internet users deceived by AI videos

These AI-generated videos have spread rapidly, recording a cumulative 12 million views on Instagram alone within a month of being posted. The main issue is that a significant number of viewers are unable to distinguish whether the videos are real, accepting them as actual police responses.

The confusion has been further heightened by the nationwide expansion of police body cameras, which began in the Seoul metropolitan area and extended to Daejeon earlier this month. In fact, the BJ arrest video has attracted numerous comments criticizing the police for "suppressing citizens' freedoms" and questioning whether the response was "excessive force."

Artificial intelligence (AI) fake video made to look like it was filmed with a police body camera. Instagram

National Police Agency launches preliminary investigation... Uncertainty over possible punishment

In response, the National Police Agency announced that it will launch a preliminary investigation into the relevant SNS channels to prevent further harm caused by the spread of fake AI-generated videos. The police suspect that the channel operators may have transmitted false information for their own or others' benefit or harm, and are considering applying charges under the Framework Act on Telecommunications, while also pursuing deletion or blocking measures.

However, the provision (Article 47, Paragraph 1) that allowed for the punishment of those who transmitted false information with the intent to harm the public interest was ruled unconstitutional and abolished in 2010 following the "Minerva case." Since no replacement law has been enacted, there is uncertainty over whether the channel operators will actually face punishment.