A major K-pop agency has vowed to take the "strongest legal action" against deepfake videos depicting its artists, after local media reports exposing Telegram chat rooms for sharing AI-generated pornography sparked public outrage.

South Korea is the country most susceptible to deepfake porn, according to a 2023 report by cybersecurity startup Security Hero, with singers and actresses from the rising cultural powerhouse accounting for 53 percent of the individuals featured in the content it reviewed.

"We are gravely concerned about the recent spread of deepfake videos involving our artists," said a statement issued late Friday by K-pop agency JYP Entertainment, whose artists include the popular girl group TWICE.

"We are in the process of collecting all relevant evidence to pursue the strongest legal action with a leading law firm, without leniency."

Earlier this week, President Yoon Suk Yeol called for an investigation into deepfake porn, with relevant agencies and police saying around 60 percent of victims were minors.

According to media reports, victims have included soldiers, teachers and students.

JYP's announcement comes about two months after fellow K-pop label ADOR said police were investigating the creators and distributors profiting from obscene deepfake content depicting the firm's hugely popular girl group NewJeans.

Some of the offenders had already been convicted and sentenced, ADOR said at the time.

Activists say South Korea is plagued by an acute epidemic of digital sex crimes, including spycams and revenge porn, with inadequate legislation to punish offenders.

In 2019, K-pop star Goo Hara took her own life after falling victim to "revenge porn" — private sex videos filmed or shared non-consensually by exes — and threats by a disgruntled ex-boyfriend.

And while South Korea is a leading technological power and increasingly a major exporter of its pop culture, it remains a socially conservative society with a poor record on women's rights.

In recent years, however, a new #MeToo generation has mobilized on a host of issues, including legalizing abortion, triggering an online backlash against so-called "radical feminism".

Before being elected, President Yoon had claimed South Korean women did not suffer from "systemic gender discrimination", despite evidence to the contrary in the form of gaps in wages and workforce participation.

He won office in 2022 in part on a campaign pledge to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality, with some of his supporters going so far as to label the women's movement a "mental illness."

Source: AFP