hankyoreh

Members of the Seoul Women’s Association and branches of its feminist university student groups hold an urgent press conference near Gangnam Station in Seoul on Aug. 29, 2024, to condemn deepfake sex crimes. (Yonhap)

“Politicians should take action to ensure that no one ever dares to degrade us again.”
 
The Seoul Women’s Association and members of university student groups concerned with minorities’ rights met in front of Gangnam Station’s Exit 10 on Thursday afternoon to hold an emergency press briefing to demand that the government and the National Assembly take action against online sex crimes involving the distribution of pornographic deepfakes.
 
“Whenever issues related to online sex crimes, such as the proliferation of Soranet [South Korea’s biggest nonconsensual pornography website] and the Nth Room online sexual abuse case came to light, the government would belatedly respond to such situations only after feeling the wrath of the public. However, such responses were short-lived. The government should conduct thorough investigations to bring the truth to light, punish perpetrators and come up with preventive measures,” those gathered said. 
 
“In a generation in which social media has become part of our daily lives, the fact that taking and sharing pictures online can lead to the victimization of people demonstrates how crime is ravaging people’s lives,” they went on. “Let us proclaim that the creation and consumption of pornographic deepfakes is criminal and stand in solidarity with victims.”
 
The Seoul Women’s Association and other likeminded associations have established a joint action coalition to denounce deepfake sex crimes and plan to hold events every Friday night near Gangnam station at which women will engage in continuous dialogue about this most recent spate of digital sex crimes, starting on Aug. 30.

The Korean Women’s Associations United, the Korea Response Center for Cyber Sexual Violence and the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center, along with 84 other associations organizing for women’s rights also published a statement calling for comprehensive policies that “shall not be cowed by narrow-minded laws and intimidating ministries but will protect the rights of digital citizens.”
 
The group pointed out that, despite the “Comprehensive Plan to Prevent Digital Sexual Offenses” in 2017, the “Webhard Cartel Prevention Plan” in 2019, and the so-called “Nth Room Prevention Act” in 2020, pornographic deepfakes are still proliferating. 
 
The women’s groups called for the restoration of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family’s budget for supporting and preventing violence against women, strengthening of police investigations that take into account the nature and severity of online sex crimes, and establishing regulatory measures for online platforms at the level of the Korea Communications Commission and the Korea Communications Standards Commission.  
 
They also called for the Yoon Suk-yeol administration to overhaul its policy keynote that denies the existence of systemic sexism. The associations railed against the administration, saying, “The government has advocated for the abolishment of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family as part of its key promises and harshly cut the funds needed to support victims of violence against women and to take preventive measures. The president then had the audacity to say that we need to ‘eradicate online sex crimes once and for all’ during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.”

By Park Hyun-jung, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]