South Korea's media regulator said Tuesday encrypted messaging app Telegram has complied with its request to remove certain deepfake pornographic content on its platform and apologized for its response to digital sex crimes. Numerous chat rooms suspected of creating and distributing deepfake porn content with doctored photos of Korean women have been discovered on Telegram recently, leading to a preliminary police investigation into Telegram's corporate entity on suspicions of abetting deepfake sex crimes. Telegram's East Asia branch representative sent an email to the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC), confirming that the company had removed 25 pieces of sexual exploitation material from its platform as requested by the KCSC, the commission said. Telegram also apologized for miscommunication regarding the issue and shared an exclusive email address for future communication with the media watchdog, it said. The KCSC said it has requested Telegram to install a hotline with South Korean auth orities to better respond to illicit content on the platform. "We wish to strengthen cooperation with (Telegram) by securing a hotline, starting with the exclusive email address, to resolve the circulation of deepfake sexual exploitation materials and ultimately eradicate digital sex crime content," a KCSC official said. Source: Yonhap News Agency