Police arrest 94 suspects over deepfake crimes in 5 months, with 70 percent teenagers

SEOUL, May 2 (Yonhap) -- Police said Sunday they have arrested 94 suspects over allegations of creating or distributing illegal deepfake content in the past five months amid calls for tightened scrutiny over crimes using the deep learning technology.

Deepfake content refers to digitally manipulated images or videos that could lead viewers to wrongly perceive the processed media to be real, often becoming a source of fake news, fraud and defamation.

Of the arrested suspects, 65, or 70 percent, were teenagers, while 17, or 18 percent, were in their 20s, police said.

Of 114 victims identified, 109 were female, mostly in their 10s or 20s.

"Creation or distribution of deepfake content is a serious crime," a police official said, adding that they are looking into another 103 similar cases.

A 2019 report by Amsterdam-based cybersecurity firm Sensity, formerly Deeptrace, showed that a whopping 96 percent of deepfake videos online were pornographic content.

(END)