US YouTuber May Face 7 Years in South Korean Jail for Deepfake Video
A U.S. YouTuber is reportedly facing jail time for creating a deepfake video that showed him kissing a South Korean influencer.
24-year-old American YouTuber Johnny Somali, who is also known as Ramsey Khalid Ismail, is currently facing several charges in South Korea related to videos that he filmed in the country.
Somali is facing 10 years in prison for posting a video that showed him kissing and twerking next to the “Statue of Peace” in Seoul, South Korea. The monument was erected to commemorate the women subjected to sexual slavery during the Japanese colonial rule of Korea from 1910 to 1945.
The BBC reports that Somali is currently under investigation for his misconduct. Although Somali has since apologized for the act, it’s been reported that YouTuber cannot leave the country and will be banned from South Korea and Japan after serving his prison sentence.
Now, Somali is reportedly facing further legal challenges after he shared a deepfake video that showed him kissing a Korean streamer.
According to Dexerto, Somali brought out his laptop during a livestream. Somali then showed a deepfake video that showed him kissing content creator Bongbong — who has over 12,000 followers on the streaming platform Kick — and bragged about having a Korean girlfriend.
However, his followers noticed that the video had a “hailuo AI” watermark logo in the bottom right corner of the screen which indicated that the footage was deepfaked.
Bongbong reportedly filed a complaint against Somali at the Cheongwon Police Department in relation to the deepfake video but later decided not to press charges against him. However, Dexerto reports that the South Korean government may prosecute him over the AI video instead.
Somali published the video just months after South Korea passed a bill that criminalizes possessing or watching sexually explicit deepfake images and videos, with penalties set to include prison terms and fines.
According to the bill, that was passed by South Korean lawmakers on September 26, making sexually explicit deepfakes with the intention of distributing them is punishable by up to seven years in prison and a fine of 50 million won ($35,500).
