Seoul Police Officer Arrested Over Deepfake, Child Exploitation Images
Seoul police officer arrested after deepfake, child exploitation and illegally filmed images were found on his phone.
The officer works at the Dongdaemun Police Station in Seoul. His identity was withheld. According to the report, he was formally arrested last month after a months-long investigation aimed at tracking down a distributor of such material in a Telegram chat room.
In August, investigators seized his mobile phone, and a forensic analysis of the device turned up about 2,600 deepfake images, some 1,600 images sexually exploiting children and about 1,300 illegally filmed images.
The report said the officer used artificial intelligence to fabricate about 400 nude images of people he knew between March 2022 and July this year, and distributed dozens of those images in the Telegram chat room.
The officer had previously been investigated for a similar offense and received a suspended indictment before joining the police force, according to the account.
An official at the Dongdaemun Police Station said the officer was placed on standby as soon as the case was reported to the station and has since been relieved of duty. The official added that the station could not confirm the suspicions or other circumstances in detail.
No details were released about the identities of the people depicted in the images or about how many of them are known to investigators.