Telegram Faces Deepfake Pornography Probe in South Korea

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 kept in the same place as the data they protect,” and that it would require “several court orders from different jurisdictions” to force the firm to surrender those keys. “We have disclosed 0 bytes of user data to third parties, including governments, to this day,” the firm states on its website.

The firm’s founder Pavel Durov faces a similar investigation in France, where prosecutors have formally indicted Durov on multiple charges, including allegations that Telegram has been used to facilitate drug trafficking, organized fraud, and the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The indictment also cites Durov's alleged non-cooperation with law enforcement requests for information.

Durov, known for his staunch advocacy of privacy and free speech, has found support from prominent figures in the tech industry. Critics of his arrest, including Edward Snowden and Elon Musk, argue that holding platform creators responsible for user actions sets a dangerous precedent.

Other privacy advocates, including the president of rival messaging app Signal, have criticized Telegram’s user privacy protections, arguing that the platform “doesn't provide meaningful privacy or end-to-end encryption.”