SM Entertainment, the agency behind several major K-pop acts, said on April 10 that 12 people prosecuted over sexually explicit deepfakes of its artists have been jailed, and that their sentences are now final after appeals failed.
The heaviest term named is four years, with others between two and a half and three and a half years. Each also carries a five-year employment restriction and a mandatory sexual violence treatment course, under South Korea's special law on sexual crimes covering the distribution of fabricated videos.
The agency said most suspects in its deepfake cases have now been caught. It argued the fakes harm artists twice: they humiliate them, and they falsely suggest the performer took part.
Offenders who share material through anonymous overseas platforms are being pursued with the help of US law firms, it said, and it thanked Telegram, X, Instagram, Discord and DC Inside for cooperating. It warned that making, sharing or even possessing such material is being punished strictly.
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