South Korea passes law criminalizing deepfake pornography possession and distribution

South Korea's National Assembly passed legislation on September 26, 2024 that for the first time criminalizes the possession and viewing of digitally manipulated sexual imagery, including deepfakes, with penalties of up to three years in prison. The measure followed a surge in reported cases involving doctored images of women and underage girls circulated on messaging platforms, and mandates stronger obligations on platforms to remove such content swiftly.

Criminalization of possession establishes a legal backstop but depends on discovering the material after it has been received and viewed. Detection systems that intercept harmful imagery the moment it is sent in a direct message prevent the harm from occurring at all. Guardii's real-time anti-CSAM and protection-for-women detection modules flag the distribution of non-consensual explicit content, including AI-generated deepfakes, across messaging platforms before the target opens it, giving platforms and authorities the ability to intervene immediately rather than relying on after-the-fact criminal investigation.