Recently, amidst the Telegram-based sex crimes gaining international attention in Korea, K-Pop fans brought to attention that numerous female idols were the victims of deepfake porn.
According to a Security Hero report shared by the Wall Street Journal, South Korea is the most vulnerable country to deepfake sexual crimes. The report found that of nearly 96,000 videos from ten deepfake porn sites and 85 deepfake channels on video-sharing platforms analyzed over two months, 53% of the individuals appearing in deepfake pornography were Korean singers and actors.
Fans highlighted one such site, demanding that action be taken by the various idols’ agencies.
Regardless of which group we stan we should all stand together against this. Today it is them, tomorrow it’ll be someone else. 4/7 babymonster is minor, enough to explain the intensity of the situation.
Let’s keep the fanwars side for the time being and protect our female idols!! pic.twitter.com/NafBODGG5I— hustleeee_ ᱬ (@hustle_eee) August 29, 2024
Nevies it’s been reported that those as*holes also use GIDLE’s members in their deepfake website🚨This is disgusting !! Cube must protects its female idols !!!
DROP THE TAGS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE‼️
CUBE PROTECT YOUR ARTISTS#CUBE_PROTECT_GIDLE @cubeunited #CUBE_PROTECT_LIGHTSUM pic.twitter.com/Xovtf8cSXM
— pretty.j ² 🐈⬛ (@mari_gznie) August 29, 2024
🚨 URGENT 🚨
🚨 STEPS TO TAKE DOWN KPOP P0RN0GR@PHIC PAGES FROM GOOGLE
LINK :- https://t.co/3aXKXPy9M5
THE WEBSITES and the PROCEDURE IS ATTACHED HEREWITH.
Step 1&2 :- 👇
IN STEP 3 :- Fill your personal info, and the submit.YG PROTECT YOUR ARTISTS #YG_PROTECT_BLACKPINK pic.twitter.com/HZalz5PUai
— PROTECT BLACKPINK (@PROTECTBLACKPNK) August 29, 2024
Thankfully, several companies did speak up on the issue, promising strong legal action. JYP Entertainment was among the first, followed by ATRP, YG Entertainment, FCENM, and MODHAUS.
4 K-Pop Agencies Have Promised Strong Action Against Deepfake Idol Porn Sites So Far
Following these notices, the site targeted by netizens has responded to the promised action.
The crudely named “idolfap.com” appears to have disappeared, and when attempting to access it from a Google search, it shows a 404 message. A similarly named site, “idolfake.org” also shows a similar message.
And while this is certainly a big deal as one of the first sites to appear in Google searches, it has only highlighted the depth of the issue. In addition to netizens sharing that the site might reappear at a different time or is under a different URL…
this is good but it’s very likely they’ll re-open under a different url. keep pressuring the companies, no company is too nugu to step up to protect their employees https://t.co/O5BsIqYdSM
— ⋆✴︎cricket 🌳 GWSN DAY (@mccnlightaria) August 31, 2024
websites like these are never “down” forever, they’re just somewhere else https://t.co/Uf26P21b62
— lauri (@ki5umi) September 1, 2024
…this has also made many aware just how prolific the issue is. When accessing the site using just the URLs, a list offering suggestions for other websites with similar content appears, instead of the error message.
Netizens have brought up the existence of many other websites, including some that include deepfaked content of male idols as well.
これディープフェイクの事だよね？
それでいうとこのサイトはヨドルだけでなくナムドルも結構な数上がってて日本のアイドルと女優も見かけたかも
こういうのって事務所に情報提供したらいいの？ https://t.co/BfpDps026J pic.twitter.com/ejYYhgF70E— 𝐚𝐢 (@_a1x23_) August 30, 2024
i told some time ago that our girls have those too and if you’re unsure, just look at this… let’s find the way to report this kind of websites and take them down asap for all female idols here https://t.co/mn3gF3Y9q4 pic.twitter.com/NvbFFnfa33
— pia❖⁷ 🍉 • will meet dreamcatcher♡ (@moonswfs) August 29, 2024
there are still more websites that need to be taken down i hope we do everything we can to shut them all down#JYP_PROTECT_TWICE#JYP_PROTECT_NMIXX#JYP_PROTECT_ITZY#ADOR_PROTECT_NEWJEANS#STARSHIP_PROTECT_IVE#SM_PROTECT_AESPA #YG_PROTECT_BABYMONSTER#YG_PROTECT_BLACKPINK pic.twitter.com/gjaHtn1tu2
— won ⭐ (@kyujst) September 1, 2024
Hopefully, more agencies will speak up on the topic and begin a change.
