aespa side: "Distributor of Karina and Winter's deepfakes sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison..Zero-tolerance policy"[Official][Full Text]

*This content was translated by AI.

A person accused of producing and distributing deepfake content targeting the group aespa (aespa, Karina, Winter, Giselle, Ningning) has been sentenced to a prison term.

SM Entertainment (hereinafter SM), the agency, announced that "A, who produced deepfake videos of aespa members Karina and Winter and sold them for profit, was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison." The 1st Criminal Division of the Daegu High Court ordered A to serve a prison sentence, complete 80 hours of a sexual violence treatment program, and imposed a 7-year employment ban related to children and adolescents.

Regarding this verdict, SM reaffirmed its policy of taking a firm stance with a zero-tolerance principle against criminal acts that infringe upon artists' rights and interests. "To date, we have collected thousands of pieces of evidence of malicious posts and comments on various online communities and SNS through fan reports and our own monitoring," and "Based on this, we have filed criminal complaints with law enforcement authorities, and the identities of numerous suspects have already been identified, with investigations underway," the agency explained.

Furthermore, SM is continuously collecting evidence regarding all criminal acts related to aespa, including the creation of malicious rumors, repeated dissemination of false facts, writing of sexually harassing posts, and production and distribution of insulting and distorted content. The agency plans to gradually expand the filing of criminal complaints after review.

◆ Full text of the official notice regarding the progress of SM's legal response related to aespa's Karina and Winter.

Hello, this is SM Entertainment.

We are informing you that a defendant involved in the case of producing and selling deepfake videos of our artists Karina and Winter for profit has been found guilty and sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison, ordered to complete 80 hours of a sexual violence treatment program, and banned from employment related to children and adolescents for 7 years.

Our company is closely monitoring fan reports and major domestic and international platforms (TheQoo, Instiz, X, DC Inside, Nate Pann, MLB Park, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Ilbe, Bobae Dream, FM Korea, Naver, Daum, etc.), and we are seeing meaningful results continue, particularly regarding deepfake-related cases including the aforementioned incident, as announced in our previous quarterly notice.

We are also continuously filing criminal complaints with law enforcement authorities against writers of malicious posts and comments related to our artists for violations of the Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence, the Information and Communications Network Act, and the Telecommunications Basic Act.

We have already secured a vast amount of evidence and, with the help of platform companies and institutional investors, are identifying the identities of anonymous posters. We state that we will respond firmly to acts of creating and distributing malicious rumors, false facts, sexual harassment, mockery, and distorted content without any leniency or settlement.

Going forward, our company will do its utmost in all aspects to protect the rights and interests of our artists.

Thank you.

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*This content was translated by AI.