JYP Entertainment has announced its intention to pursue strong legal action against any creators of deepfake videos depicting members of TWICE and any of its artists.
On August 31, the K-pop label published a statement on fan community app FANS announcing its intention to pursue legal action against creators of deepfake videos depicting TWICE members and other JYP Entertainment artists.
“We are gravely concerned about the recent spread of deepfake (AI-generated) videos involving our artists,” the label said. “This is a blatant violation of the law, and we are in the process of collecting all relevant evidence to pursue the strongest legal action with a leading law firm, without leniency.”
While other details remain under wraps, JYP concluded its statement by writing: “We want to make it clear that we will not stand by while our artists’ rights are violated and will take decisive action to address this matter to the fullest extent possible.”
JYP Entertainment’s statement comes amid what Korea JoongAng Daily has described as a “nationwide deepfake epidemic” in South Korea, where the “online crime of creating or watching sex videos using K-pop artists’ faces in pornographic content” was recently discovered to be alarmingly prevalent.
The publication also noted that South Korean police have been cracking down on these deepfake sex crimes as of August 28, following President Yoon Suk-yeol’s public order to combat the spread of deepfake videos.
Per Korea JoongAng Daily, a recent report from US cybersecurity agency Security Hero identified South Korea as the number one target for deepfake pornography creators in 2023. Meanwhile, separate report by police found that approximately 60 per cent of deepfake victims are teenagers.
Other K-pop idols affected by this ongoing epidemic include former IZ*ONE member Kwon Eun-bi and NewJeans, whose labels – Woollim Entertainment and ADOR, respectively – have also put out statements addressing their intent to pursue legal action against deepfake creators.