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South Korean authorities have launched a preliminary investigation into Telegram, just days after the high-profile arrest of the messaging app’s founder, Pavel Durov, in France. Local news agency Yonhap reported that the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has initiated an internal examination of Telegram’s corporate entity, focusing on allegations that the platform may have been involved in “abetting” the spread of deepfake pornography. Woo Jong-soo, who heads South Korea’s National Office of Investigation, said that the move mirrors recent actions taken by French authorities. “As France has done, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency launched an internal investigation into the corporate entity of Telegram before officially booking it,” Woo said, adding that, “The charges are about abetting this crime.” The focus of the investigation is on whether Telegram may have inadvertently or negligently abetted the creation and distribution of nonconsensual deepfake sexual content, in which artificial intelligence (AI) is used to create sexually explicit images and video using the likenesses of real people. This probe comes as South Korean authorities grapple with a rise in deepfake-related sex crimes. According to Yonhap, in just four days last week, police received 88 reports of such offenses and identified 24 suspects. The investigation has also uncovered eight automated programs used to generate deepfake pornography specifically for distribution on Telegram, along with several group chats involved in circulating illicit material. Telegram’s stance on privacy Woo acknowledged that Telegram’s stance on user privacy poses challenges to the investigation, noting that the platform “does not readily provide investigation data, such as account information, to us or other state investigative bodies, including those in the U.S.” He added that South Korean police plan to collaborate with French investigators and international institutions on the investigation. Telegram claims that decryption keys for its Cloud Chats are “split into parts and are never…

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Filed under: News - @ September 3, 2024 9:23 pm