South Korean opposition leader thought President's midnight martial law announcement was a 'deepfake'

The issue of deepfakes became a major topic in South Korea over the summer, as pornographic content produced using deepfake technology triggered a crisis. The South Korean government was forced to take measures against these videos, including prison sentences. Deepfake technology can produce highly realistic fake videos and images using photos found on many people's social media accounts. Through this method, people's photos were turned into fake videos with pornographic content, and a large number of people were victimized.

Deepfakes have now come to the fore in a political crisis. President Yoon Suk Yeol announced a martial law declaration that lasted for several hours in an extraordinary televised address late Tuesday night, December 3, and opposition lawmakers, who make up the majority, later forced their way into the parliament building surrounded by soldiers and voted to cancel the martial law. Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung told US-based media company CNN that he had arrived home after work when his wife suddenly showed him the video on the social media platform YouTube where President Yoon announced the martial law declaration. Lee Jae-myung stated that while watching the video, he said, "This is a deepfake. It has to be a deepfake. It is impossible for this to be real." He noted that he continued to watch the video and, still unable to believe it, thought, "This is fabricated, it's fake."

DEEPFAKE CONTENT VICTIMIZES PEOPLE

The deepfake technique is a type of media in which a photograph or video taken of a real person is replaced with the image of another person using artificial neural networks. For example, the face of the person in a photo is replaced with the face of another person in a video, resulting in a brand new fake video.

News Source: 12punto