<div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">South Korea's national police said Thursday that they planned to spend nearly $7 million over the next three years on technology to battle deepfakes, voice cloning and other forms of digital fraud.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In recent weeks, authorities have uncovered a sprawling network of Telegram chatrooms, often set up within schools and universities, in which users shared AI-generated deepfake porn depicting female students and staff.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The revelations have prompted public outrage, with the president vowing stern action.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Seoul's National Police Agency said Thursday that it had allocated 2.7 billion won ($2 million) a year until 2027 for developing deep-learning technology to detect digitally-fabricated content such as deepfakes and voice cloning.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition, they would also spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade their current software for monitoring deepfake and other AI-generated videos.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Super-wired South Korea has long battled sexual cyber-violence, but cases are up 11-fold this year from 2018, official figures show.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prosecution rates, however, remain dismal. From 2021 to July this year, 793 deepfake crimes were reported, but only 16 people were arrested and prosecuted, according to police data obtained by a lawmaker.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said last week that the "issue of deepfakes has sparked widespread concern, particularly among women, as it represents a serious crime that undermines social harmony".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I have urged the relevant ministries to take decisive action," Yoon added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In late August, 84 women's organisations released a joint statement saying the root cause of the deepfake crisis was "structural gender discrimination and the solution is gender equality".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>