Lee urges stronger safeguards against privacy breaches,…

What happened

On July 16, 2024, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung addressed the growing threat of deepfake-related crimes during a public policy briefing at the Blue House in Seoul. The discussion highlighted the urgent need for government intervention as society transitions into an AI-driven era. A central point of the briefing was the recent emergence of an obscene, AI-generated image of Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Un-ju, which circulated online. The incident caused the lawmaker severe mental shock, resulting in her hospitalization.

In response to this incident and the general risks posed by AI-generated content, President Lee emphasized that the government must move beyond relying on the National Assembly for legislative solutions. He instructed officials to take a proactive role in establishing clear directions for regulation. The Korea Media and Communications Commission (KMCC) confirmed it is currently preparing legislation to regulate such content at the distribution level. Furthermore, the Ministry of Science and ICT is exploring measures to prevent users from tampering with or removing mandatory labels that identify content as AI-generated. The president stressed that because people naturally trust what they see, the lack of clear disclosure labels for AI-generated media poses a significant risk of causing serious public misunderstandings.