The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency in Namdong District, Incheon (YONHAP)
Police have launched an investigation into a Telegram chatroom where sexually explicit photographs of female students at Inha University were created and distributed.
The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency’s cyber investigation unit said on Monday that it was trying to track down the operator of the Telegram chatroom for violating the law on special cases in the punishment of sexual crimes.
Telegram is a combined content distribution platform and messaging app that enables end-to-end encryption of messages.
The chatroom, which has been active since 2020 with around 1,200 participants, was used to share sexually explicit images with digitally altered faces of female students. Participants also shared personal information of the victims, such as phone numbers and addresses.
Police have identified four victims whose photos were shared in the chatroom, some of them are students at Inha University.
According to reports, the deepfake photos also included the faces of 20 Inha University students, all of whom belong to the same student club. Police are currently investigating whether there are any other victims.
Although the person running the chatroom has not been caught, police said they arrested and prosecuted a 30-year-old man who was part of the chatroom in March for downloading and sharing the deepfake photos. However, the 30-year-old has no connection with Inha University in any way.
In addition, the police have identified two other chatroom participants and are continuing their investigation.
BY LEE TAE-HEE ([email protected])
