TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taiwanese Youtuber and his assistant have been ordered to pay additional fines of NT$500,000 (US$16,300) to five victims by a New Taipei District on Monday (March 13), on top of prison sentences the pair received for creating deepfaked porn videos with the likenesses of politicians and celebrities.
According to a police investigation, the Youtuber known as Hsiao Yu (小玉) (real name Chu Yu-chen (朱玉宸)) and his assistant Chuang Hsin-jui (莊炘睿) edited the faces of 119 people into porn videos, profiting more than NT$13 million from the illegal material, per CNA. The victims included Kaohsiung City Councillor Huang Jie (黃捷), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜), and influencer Ili Cheng (鄭家純).
Chu was arrested in October 2021 after police discovered the content on Telegram. He and Chuang were eventually sentenced to more than five year and three year sentences respectively for violating the Personal Data Protection Act, offenses of public demeanor, and aggravated defamation.
In addition to the compensation orders issued on Monday and the prison sentences already handed down, the pair were previously ordered to pay damages of NT$5 million each to five of the most high-profile figures involved in the case for the “anxiety and severe mental trauma” caused. A further 21 victims also requested compensation, with two awarded NT$1 million last year, and one other NT$500,000.
Following the case, legislative amendments approved in January increased jail time for profiting from the distribution of deepfake pornographic material. Jail sentences for the recording of and blackmail involving sexually explicit images were also increased, with sentences increasing by half if profit was involved.
One of the victims, a Taiwanese influencer named Zamy (奎丁) responded to the news of the additional compensation orders with contempt, saying that the amount was humiliating to the victims. “Can’t you lock him up for longer?” she wrote in an Instagram story on Monday.
According to a 2019 report, non-consensual deepfake pornography accounts for 96% of the deepfake videos online, and women represent the overwhelming majority of victims of deepfaked sexually explicit material. Governments around the world are facing difficulties combatting the rise in deepfake materials on the internet, as existing legal frameworks often lack mechanisms to target deepfake porn.
