A new policy that allows eavesdropping of suspects is currently being discussed in South Korea

Link to the page: 국회입법예고
Link to archive: 국회입법예고

Content (English):

Recently, it was discovered that there were hundreds of thousands of people participating in the telegram channel that creates illegal photoshopped contents, causing unrest amongst the general public in the fear that they may also be a victim of it.

The victims include minors, teachers and female soldiers, but the criminals have shown no signs of stopping, and are actively taunting the investigation agency, such as creating a community named 학교폭력 딥페이크 대책본부. (TN: I haven’t heard of them, but a short search suggests that it’s a community that shares various ways to thwart investigations againsy them, created in an accessible place.)

Therefore, there needs to be a legal basis that allows eavesdropping internet connection of a suspect accused of creating and distributing deepfakes to stop them from spreading in a timely manner.

Content (Korean):

최근 불법합성물을 손쉽게 제작해주는 텔레그램 채널에 수십만명이 참여하고 있다는 사실이 알려지면서 ‘나도 피해자일지 모른다’는 시민들의 불안은 수그러들지 않고 있음.
특히 피해자 중에 미성년자, 교사, 여군 등이 포함돼 있지만 온라인에 ‘학교폭력 딥페이크 대책본부’라는 이름의 카페가 등장하는 등 가해자들은 ‘잡힐 리 없다’며 수사기관을 조롱하며 범죄를 이어가고 있어 매우 심각한 사회범죄가 되고 있음.
이에 불법ㆍ허위영상물이 올라오는 서버나 해당 영상물 제작ㆍ유통 혐의를 받는 피의자의 인터넷 회선을 감청할 수 있도록 해 딥페이크 범죄물이 무차별적으로 유포되는 것을 적시에 차단할 수 있는 근거를 마련하고자 함(안 제5조제1항제13호 신설).

This is my first time doing legal stuff translation, so the vocabs may not be a one-to-one match. Still, really nice of them to just straight-up say eavesdropping without sugarcoating.

How do other countries with similar law already in place actually do this? Do they just assume worst when it comes to encrypted data?

2 Likes