Masked female protesters attend a rally in northeastern Seoul, Saturday. Courtesy of Joint Action to Condemn Misogynistic Violence
Masked and dressed in black, more than 6,000 people gathered at Marroninier Park in northeastern Seoul, Saturday, to call for stronger legal action against deepfake crimes targeting women.
Protesters accused the government of largely neglecting sexual offenses that are evolving rapidly with the latest technologies. They argued that current laws are insufficient to address such crimes and called for a new legal system and stronger political will to combat them effectively.
"Six years ago, hundreds of thousands of women gathered here in Hyehwa to condemn illegal filming and digital sex crimes and urged the government to come up with countermeasures, but they did not solve the problem," said the organizers in a joint statement. “Over time, the damage has gradually expanded. Nothing has changed and even the law and system are regressing.”
Organized by the "Joint Action to Condemn Misogynistic Violence," a women's rights group launched mostly by university students, the protest was held near Hyehwa Station. For many activists promoting women's rights, it is a symbolic place where tens of thousands of women rallied in 2018 in a series of protests calling for the country's justice system to be fair for both men and women.
"We told you not to film illegally, and now you are doing deepfake?" the protesters chanted, urging the National Assembly, police and all relevant government bodies to take a prompt, decisive action against the growing number of such criminals.
"The crime of deepfake sexual exploitation is not new," the group said. "Women have faced sexual crimes for decades, with their faces and identities exposed in male online communities, while the state has downplayed the severity and remained passive. As a result, women across the country are anxious and fearful of becoming victims, leading many to abandon their daily lives."
Protesters hold a rally against the growing number of deepfake digital crimes in Seoul, Saturday. Courtesy of Joint Action to Condemn Misogynistic Violence
Several protesters said they were in constant fear over the possibility that such fake online content may ruin their real life.
"Every time we do group assignments and hang out with male students, we have to worry about being victims of crime," an anonymous university student said. "We have to blame a society that has no choice but to suspect all men before telling us not to treat them as potential criminals."
One of the teenage participants expressed her fear of joining the rally, worried that her involvement could attract unwanted attention from deepfake criminals.
"I came here because I realized that nothing changes by grieving and being angry alone," she said. "Deepfake crime didn't emerge in a vacuum. It is the result of decades of abetted sex crimes and is a product of deep-rooted patriarchy that has persisted for thousands of years. If the perpetrators are not punished, second and third crimes will continue," she added.
The severity of this deepfake sex crime has grown even more serious as the majority of the perpetrators and victims were teenagers.
According to the National Police Agency, out of 318 suspects arrested this year, 251 or 78.9 percent were teenagers, while some 60 percent of the victims of deepfake crimes that the police investigated for three years from 2021 were also minors.
Protesters also called on the government to take action and implement stronger regulations on related industries.
"The government should strictly regulate the artificial intelligence industry to prevent unlawful image manipulation," said another anonymous participant. "Similar crimes will only stop when severe penalties are imposed on workplaces that fail to comply."