SEOUL, Sept. 5 (AJP) - Telegram, the instant messaging app at the center of a growing deepfake crime controversy in Korea, saw its largest-ever monthly user increase in the country in August, data showed Thursday.
Telegram's monthly active users increased by 311,130 to 3,471,421 last month, according to the app analysis service Mobile Index. It marks the largest monthly increase since data collection began in March 2021.
Those under 20 accounted for 32.1 percent of the new members, despite the app's 12+ age rating in Korean app stores.
This surge is largely attributed to curiosity about sexually explicit deepfake images shared on the platform.
The influx of young users has raised concerns about potential victims of digital sex crimes. Female users under 20 increased by 42,210, while those in their 20s grew by 21,594.
"The significant increase in underage users is concerning," said Wie Jung-hyun, dean of Chung-Ang University's College of Virtual Convergence. "While it may be seen as a kind of 'noise marketing' effect, it could lead to more deepfake victims."
Korean police reported that out of 33 suspects identified in a recent crackdown on deepfake crimes, 31 were teenagers.
Similarly, the Women's Human Rights Institute of Korea revealed that 36.9 percent of 781 individuals seeking support for deepfake-related damages between Jan. 1 and Aug. 25 were under 20.
In response to the issue, Korea's media regulator, the Korea Communications Standards Commission, announced Tuesday that Telegram had complied with an urgent request to remove 25 digital sex crime videos, expressing apologies and a willingness to build trust.
The police announced on Monday that they had launched a preliminary investigation into Telegram on suspicions of abetting deepfake sex crimes.
Woo Jong-soo, head of the National Office of Investigation, said, "As France has done, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency launched an internal investigation into the corporate entity of Telegram before officially booking it."
This move follows the arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram's founder, in France last month as part of a preliminary investigation into alleged failures to prevent criminal uses of his platform.
The Korean police plan to collaborate with French investigative authorities and international institutions in investigating Telegram, which is known for not readily providing investigation data to state bodies.
