The CEO of messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, is currently in France, where he was arrested and charged for crimes committed by third parties using his app. As of today, his problems have just got worse because South Korean police have said that they"re now launching a preliminary investigation on suspicions that the platform abetted deepfake sex crimes.
For the record, deepfake sex crimes refer to videos and pictures of real people with their faces digitally edited onto nude bodies. Even though it"s a fake, it can be very damaging to someone"s reputation if just one person thinks it"s real and starts gossiping.
Woo Jong-soo, head of the National Office of Investigation, said:
"As France has done, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency launched an internal investigation into the corporate entity of Telegram before officially booking it. The charges are about abetting this crime [(deepfakes)]. Telegram does not readily provide investigation data, such as account information, to us or other state investigative bodies, including those in the U.S."
South Korea"s police will not be investigating the tech firm alone. Yonhap News reports that the police will collaborate with the French investigative authorities and other international institutions to find methods of investigating Telegram.
It seems as though the news of Durov"s arrest has spurred people in South Korea to report crimes. The police there say that 88 deepfake sex crime reports were filed between last Monday and Thursday and that 24 individuals have been identified as the suspects behind the material. It"s investigating eight automated programs for creating deepfakes, and it"s looking into several groups that have been sharing the deepfakes.
It seems as though Durov"s major mistake was running a laissez-faire messaging platform with not much content moderation. It"s unclear right now how things will play out, but it"s very doubtful that Telegram will continue operating the way it has been. The most likely outcomes are that Telegram gets ordered to moderate content, it gets sold to a new owner who will moderate content, or it simply ceases operations.