Telegram being probed in South Korea for abetting deepfake sex crimes: Report

Telegram's troubles continue to mount. Last month, the French police arrested Telegram founder Pavel Durov for failing to curb organised crime on the app. And now a new report says that South Korea has launched an investigation following complaints of the use of deepfake technology in aiding and abetting online sex crimes on Telegram.

The South Korean police have launched an internal investigation that will look into the allegations of the app being complicit in distribution of sexually explicit content made using deepfake technology on the platform.

The head of the National Office of Investigation, Woo Jong-soo told The Korea Herald that the local police have launched an unofficial and preliminary investigation into the messaging app Telegram on the suspicions of 'complicity, aiding and abetting crimes involving deepfake pornography'.

He also cited difficulties in investigating Telegram on the grounds that the platform does not share details including users' account information and personal information with the law enforcement agencies based in South Korea and other countries across the globe.

Talking about the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov, the head of the National Office of Investigation told the media that he was aware of his arrest. Woo also said that he was planning to contact the French authorities to see if Durov's arrest could be used for gathering evidence for proving that hundreds of chatrooms were being used for aiding and abetting the distribution of deepfake porn images on the platform.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov investigated in France

As mentioned before, Telegram founder was arrested at an airport outside of Paris last month in connection with the ongoing investigation into the criminal activity on Telegram. Among other things, Durov was charged for running a platform that allows distribution of pornographic images of minors and carrying out illegal transactions.

Later, he was released on the condition that he would pay a bail amount of pays 5 million Euros, reports to the French authorities twice a week and doesn't leave France.