Court Lets Man Go Practically Scot-Free After Spreading Over 300 Deepfake Porn Videos Of Celebs

A man who victimized popular female K-Pop idols through deepfake pornography, including members of aespa and LE SSERAFIM, has been sentenced to prison.

According to reports, on January 25, the Uijeongbu District Court’s Criminal Division 11 sentenced “A,” a man who was indicted on charges of violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes (editing and distributing videos), to one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years. He was also ordered to attend 40 hours of sexual violence treatment lectures. The court has imposed a five-year employment ban on him at institutions dealing with children and adolescents, as well as with people with disabilities.

“A” was charged with operating a Telegram chat room for around four months, starting in December 2024, where he posted over 330 fake pornographic videos created by himself. He digitally manipulated the faces of popular female celebrities and even acquaintances onto nude images. In particular, the fabricated videos included members of aespa, LE SSERAFIM, and NewJeans (NJZ).

In the ruling, the court reprimanded “A” for creating videos that “could cause sexual humiliation to female celebrities and acquaintances,” adding that doing so for his own sexual gratification in itself was a serious offense, and distributing it just added to the gravity of his crime. However, considering that he had reached a settlement with some of the victims and that he didn’t gain any financial benefit from the content, he was given a lighter sentence.

However, the public responded to the sentence with scathing criticism.

• “Even after doing it 330 times, he got probation.”
• “A probation even after doing all that?”
• [Comment deleted]
• “A suspended sentence? F*ck. Even though there are minor girl group members?”
• “The government is practically encouraging this, huh?”

• “A suspended sentence??? Are you kidding me?? Sue him in civil court and get a huge amount of money from him.”
• “It seems like these kinds of incidents involving female celebrities are going to get worse and worse. Please, let’s stop giving out lenient punishments. This is a serious problem.”