"MDMA, also known as ecstasy ... induces soft, warm, and pleasant sensations in your body, unlike ice which sends electric-like jolts down your spine," a channel owner wrote, displaying photos of illegal drugs and prices in a manner similar to typical online shopping sites.
Upon accessing a suspicious Telegram link spelled "Korean BJs" in Chinese characters, the reporter also encountered covert messages featuring images of purported underage female students. This led to another link selling and creating sexually explicit deepfake content.
Chatbots capable of generating deepfake pornography were readily accessible. An AI chatbot requested pictures of women, advising, "Tight or fitted clothes will yield better results." The reporter witnessed firsthand the AI chatbot generating a nude photo of himself.
One channel provided information about allegedly high-demand prostitutes, tagging women of various ethnicities with crude feedback from sex buyers. Illegal gambling websites were also linked to these channels.
"When left unchecked, Telegram becomes a tool for various crimes, used by different groups in different ways. For women, it often becomes a space where they fall victim to sexual violence," an official from the Korea Cyber Sexual Violence Response Center (KCSVRC) said.
"While profiting significantly from operating this platform, Telegram cannot simply shift the responsibility onto users to create a space free from violence and exploitation. They need to share that responsibility,” she added.
Founded by Russian-born brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov in 2013, Telegram, part chatting app and part social media, touts robust data protection by distributing decryption keys worldwide. With more than 900 million monthly active users, it generated global revenue of 59 billion won ($45 million) in 2023.
Telegram came under scrutiny in Korea after news reports and a police investigation uncovered a torrent of deepfake pornographic content targeting women and underage students last month. Soon after, police launched a preliminary investigation into Telegram on charges of abetting these crimes.
The incident followed the arrest of CEO Pavel Durov in France on charges of complicity in cases of child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud that allegedly took place on the messaging app.
Amid the controversy, Telegram's monthly active users in Korea increased about 10 percent to 3,471,421 last month, marking the largest monthly increase since data collection began in March 2021, according to app analysis service Mobile Index.
This isn't the first time Telegram has been implicated in hosting criminal activity in Korea. In 2019, online sex exploitation rings blackmailed dozens of women and underage girls into creating and sharing sexually explicit images of themselves, which were then distributed on Telegram.
The police requested Telegram's cooperation in seven such cases, but there was no response from the company.
Drug abuse primarily involving Telegram has also been frequently reported, with even underage students becoming involved.
Telegram offers "Secret Chats" for end-to-end encrypted connections, with chat records accessible only to the participants of each conversation.
This makes it extremely challenging for law enforcement to track records on Telegram. The platform has also refused to cooperate with investigations.
The KCSVRC noted that Telegram is not subject to domestic telecommunications business laws.
"The government needs to develop strategies to deal with foreign service providers like Telegram that don't have domestic representatives and determine what minimum level of responsibility to hold these platforms accountable for." an official said.
