Police Intensify Crackdown on Middle East Fake News... 524 Deletion and Blocking Requests

Nationwide Arrests Made for Spreading False Information

The police announced on April 2 that, in response to the recent spread of false information online related to the Middle East war, they had requested the deletion or blocking of a total of 524 cases through real-time monitoring from March 1 to the previous day.

Image representing fake news. Getty Images

The police explained that they had operated a task force to respond to the dissemination of false information and had arrested individuals across the country who spread falsehoods on social networking services.

In particular, the police investigated a YouTube channel that produced and distributed 54 artificial intelligence-based fake videos, which were staged to appear as if filmed from a body camera during police dispatches. In January, one individual was arrested and sent to the prosecutor's office in custody.

These videos went viral, recording a cumulative 12 million views on Instagram alone during October of last year, and it was found that a significant number of users did not recognize that the content was false.

Additionally, in February, one person who posted a false statement in the name of the president about raising overseas stock capital gains tax rates in November last year, and another who spread false claims from September to October last year that the government intentionally caused a fire at a national resource site, were both sent to the prosecutor's office without detention.

It was also reported that, in the same month, another individual who uploaded videos containing false information—such as the claim that "187 bodies with only the lower half found in Korea"—on a YouTube channel was sent to the prosecutor's office without detention.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.