A Taiwanese YouTuber suspected of creating and selling deepfake porn videos featuring more than 100 politicians and influencers was on Monday released on bail after being arrested the previous day.
Chu Yu-chen (朱玉宸), 26, who uses the name Xiaoyu (小玉) on YouTube, was arrested on Sunday in New Taipei City, along with two suspected accomplices, a 24-year-old YouTuber surnamed Yeh (耶), known as Shaiw Shaiw (笑笑), and a 22-year-old man Chuang (莊).
The three suspects were on Monday escorted to the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for further questioning on suspicion of distributing obscene videos and publicly insulting others, in contravention of the Criminal Code.
Photo: CNA
A conviction for distributing obscene videos carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison, which can be converted or added to a NT$90,000 (US$3,222) fine, while a public insult conviction could result in a fine of up to NT$9,000.
New Taipei City Deputy Chief Prosecutor Nieh Chung (聶眾) said that while the alleged crimes were serious, it was not necessary to detain the suspects.
He said the office originally set Chu’s bail at NT$500,000 and Chuang’s at NT$100,000, but because their assets were frozen, they were released on NT$300,000 and NT$50,000 bail respectively on Monday evening.
Yeh was released without bail, Nieh said, without elaborating.
The three are believed to have made more than NT$11 million over the past year by creating and distributing the videos, which were made by superimposing people’s faces onto existing pornographic videos using deep learning technology, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said.
The videos make it seem as if the celebrities themselves are engaging in the sexual acts depicted. They are controversial, as the likenesses of those involved are usually used without their consent, it said.
Deputy Commander of the 4th Investigation Corps Ko Chih-jen (柯志仁) told a CIB briefing on Monday that pornographic videos featuring famous Taiwanese politicians and influencers began circulating online in July last year.
Chu operated the social media pages and was in charge of editing the videos, Chuang looked for video materials that could be used and Yeh dealt with the finances, a CIB investigation showed.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) voiced her concern about the issue of deepfakes, saying that her administration would evaluate existing regulations and draft relevant amendments.
Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) yesterday told legislators that the ministry has begun drafting related amendments and hoped to submit them to the legislature within a month.
Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie (黃捷), one of the people whose faces were used in the videos without their consent, said on Facebook on Monday that she had filed legal proceedings against the suspects.
She said nine other victims, all of whom are female video game streamers, had messaged her about the videos and said they would also be pressing charges.
Huang said she felt disgusted and afraid when she saw the videos herself, and indicated that the videos had caused real harm and humiliation to the victims.
Legislator Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜), whose face was also used without her consent in the videos, said on Facebook that she would pursue legislation that specifically targets deepfakes, as Taiwan’s existing laws are inadequate to deal with the issue.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS