‘No country for women’: Korean rights group decries Telegram deepfake porn explosion
Womenlink condemned the state in which crimes and violence targeting Korean women “are neither punished nor prevented” amid snowballing revelations of digital sex crimes on Telegram
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‘No country for women’: Korean rights group decries Telegram deepfake porn explosion
Posted on : 2024-08-28 17:06 KST Modified on : 2024-08-28 17:06 KST
Womenlink condemned the state in which crimes and violence targeting Korean women “are neither punished nor prevented” amid snowballing revelations of digital sex crimes on Telegram
Members of a task force for responding to sextortion on Telegram hold a press conference in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, in March 2020 where they call for fundamental solutions to sexual exploitation on Telegram. (Kim Hye-yun/Hankyoreh)
With new revelations of abuses involving the creation and dissemination of sexually explicit deepfake images coming out almost daily, Korean women’s rights group Womenlink is decrying the reality in which women are left “living without a state,” as they no longer feel that their country will provide them with the protection they need.
Womenlink released a statement on Monday condemning South Korea’s “broken society which has spawned over 220,000 perpetrators of sexual violence” and asking “how long Korea will ignore the abysmal state of affairs.”
“There are around 227,000 members of a Telegram channel that allows people to obtain sexually explicit images of their acquaintances in five seconds simply by sending a photo and paying a fee,” Womenlink wrote in its statement.
“The sheer number of people participating in the channel shows that the problem is bigger than the specific individuals who joined those channels to create and consume illegal content,” the organization went on.
“Korean women live in a society where crimes and violence targeting them are neither punished nor prevented, therefore forcing them to spend their everyday lives with a sense of dread. They are left living without a state, without the protection that the country ought to provide,” the group wrote.
“Can a society in which the safety of so many of its members is threatened daily, which tolerates and encourages the collective acts of insulting and disparaging of fellow citizens, continue to exist? More importantly, should it?” the group asked, emphasizing that “this is a state of national emergency.”
It’s time for a society-wide wake-up call, according to Womenlink.
“How low is the bar for the average Korean guy that this society cultivates? Women are objectified by their male peers and juniors, by their coworkers and bosses, and even by their closest acquaintances as objects to be evaluated based on their looks and gender, as things to be humiliated sexually and destroyed,” the group asked.
“Objectifying one’s female acquaintances as objects of desire has become a game, allowing men to look down upon and shame them,” it said.
Womenlink also denounced the Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s claim that “systemic sexism does not exist.” By pointing out that these digital sex crimes were borne out of misogyny and sexism, the group slammed the administration, saying, “The Yoon administration is trying to rationalize the abolishment of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family by making the baseless claim that systemic sexism does not exist and ignoring the suffering of so many women in society. This is a clear dereliction of duty.”
“The government should wholeheartedly throw its weight behind government departments dedicated to promoting gender equality and take comprehensive short- and long-term measures across all ministries to address structural sexism and violence against women,” the organization argued.
The women’s group concluded its statement by saying, “Every citizen, as a member of our community, is complicit in this horrifically normalized culture of sexual violence. We need to adamantly demand that every member of our society, regardless of gender, show respect for others.”
By Choi Yoon-ah, staff reporter
