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South Korea Urges Telegram to Crack Down on Deepfake Sex Crimes

South Korea Urges Telegram to Crack Down on Deepfake Sex Crimes

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The president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, has demanded a thorough inquiry into digital sex offences employing AI-generated content, citing growing concerns over the spread of deepfake pornography. President Yoon underlined during a Cabinet meeting how urgent it is to fight the rapid proliferation of deepfake videos on social media and how anyone might become a victim of these crimes. In addition to looking into and identifying perpetrators, he asked authorities to put in place educational initiatives to promote a more positive internet culture.

Dangerous Distribution of Deep Fake Pornography

South Korea Urges Telegram to Crack Down on Deepfake Sex Crimes

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Deepfake technology is becoming the main tool for producing sexually explicit content. It uses artificial intelligence to superimpose a person’s face onto another’s body in videos or photographs. The situation in South Korea became even more serious after it was discovered that a Telegram chatroom operating since 2020 was distributing deepfake photos of more than 30 female students from Inha University. Approximately 1,200 people participated in the conversation, which also shared the victims’ addresses and phone numbers.

The problem goes beyond one chat room. There have been reports of similar activity in other Telegram channels associated with other military units and educational institutions, where offenders have created and disseminated deepfake pornography using artificial intelligence systems. Over 100 channels—one with 133,400 subscribers—were found to be involved in the spread of such content when using Telemetrio, a tool for locating Telegram chatrooms.

Government Reaction and Upcoming Initiatives

The Ministry of Education in South Korea has directed regional educational offices to look into and report any instances of deepfake contents that include pupils in response to the situation. The Korea Communications Standards Commission declared that it will intensify its efforts by adding more monitoring personnel to handle situations quickly and establishing a specific reporting channel for deepfake pornography. They are also starting to communicate directly with Telegram in order to address these problems more successfully.

Comparing the government’s campaign against illegal substances to that of digital crimes, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo emphasised the need for tough action against the former. He also advocated for thorough instruction on the dangers of improper usage of digital technology. In order to prevent deepfake sex crimes and advocate for harsher sentences for perpetrators, the Democratic Party of Korea has suggested creating a task team.

Continued Crackdown and Prospects

With the aim of arresting and identifying individuals involved in the creation and dissemination of this material, the Special 7 months of the Deep Fark content crime has begun to be suppressed by the National Police Agency (KNPA). This organization applies laws in cooperation with local, state, and federal institutions, uses deep fake detection tools, and retains other countries as needed.

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Cases involving minors will receive extra attention, and the KNPA pledges to execute the law more strictly in these situations.

Deepfake pornography is becoming more and more prevalent in South Korea, which serves as a clear warning about the risks associated with technological advancement and has prompted the government to take swift measures to safeguard digital integrity and protect its residents.

Telegram Rolls Out New Update: Here are all the Features Coming to the App

Telegram Rolls Out New Update: Here are all the Features Coming to the App

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The well-known WhatsApp rival Telegram just released a feature-rich version with several enhancements to improve user experience. Redesigned calls, a special vaporise effect for erased messages, and major improvements to the platform’s bot capability are the update’s main attractions.

Improved Calls for a Modernised Feeling

Telegram Rolls Out New Update: Here are all the Features Coming to the App

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The most recent Telegram update improves the visual experience overall by introducing a revamped call interface. Now, users can take advantage of fresh animations and backdrops that adapt instantly to the state of the call—whether it’s ringing, active, or over. For users of older devices in particular, the creative design not only offers a new appearance but is optimised for resource economy, meaning less battery use.

Effect of Vaporisation on Message Elimination

The addition of a vaporise effect when deleting messages, reminiscent of Thanos’ snap, is one of the update’s most notable additions. This eye-catching and energy-efficient animation was first an experimental feature on iOS for auto-deleted texts, but it is now accessible on both the iOS and Android platforms. Every time a message is removed, users will see this eye-catching effect, which livens up everyday interactions.

Update on Bots: Enhancing Bot Experience

The free bot platform offered by Telegram, which is well-known for enabling developers to easily connect to other services, has received a significant update. This includes a broad range of enhancements, from better responses to new features that increase the potential of bots on the network.

With the most recent version, Telegram bots may now reply to messages, track comments, quotations, and links, and reply to other chats or subjects. Additionally, this upgrade allows bots with administrator capabilities to access information about giveaways and boosts within the channels. With these improvements, bots in the Telegram ecosystem will be able to perform a wider range of jobs and become more involved.

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Optimal Utilisation of Resources

In addition to its eye-catching improvements, the Telegram update prioritises resource efficiency. In keeping with Telegram’s mission to deliver an inclusive user experience, the revised call interface uses fewer resources, meaning longer battery life, and faster operation on older devices.

To sum up, Telegram’s most recent upgrade shows the platform’s commitment to innovation and ongoing development. Improved calling, visually stimulating message deletions, and an improved bot platform with endless interaction possibilities are now available to users.

voice-to-text for video

Telegram adds voice-to-text for video messages

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A new update to Telegram has been released, bringing some new functions for Premium customers as well as some universally accessible visual updates. The new feature of voice-to-text for video messages is now accessible to Telegram Premium users.

voice-to-text for video
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Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, said last month that users may now use Fragment to purchase and trade usernames on the site. The most recent version of Telegram now includes a number of new features, including interactive emoticons and reactions, voice-to-text for video conversations, and more.

Prior to the recent upgrade, members could convert any voice message to text. With the update, users now can also transcribe a video message to text. If one routinely participates in video conferences and meetings or conducts interviews over video calls, the newly added function will be especially helpful to them. However, this new feature is only available for Premium users. 

Admins of Telegram groups can now enable “Topics in groups.” Users can create separate places for various topics using the new feature, which can be activated in groups with more than 200 members. Similar to individual conversations, the “Topics in groups” feature has its own multimedia and alert options.

Users will also be allowed to utilize bots, vote in polls, and pin remarks on the subject. For those in big groups, where it can be difficult to follow conversations, it is quite helpful. Group admins can turn on the feature in the “Group settings”. In “Permissions,” they can specify who is permitted to manage and create topics.

The new update gives Android users additional options to resize text via the Chat settings, including link previewing and reply headers. iOS users will notice that the Night Mode has been improved with more balanced colors and improved blur effect as users navigate through chats.

Collectible username, another intriguing new feature added in the update, makes it simple for others to get in touch with Telegram users or locate their public groups in channels. Users of Telegram can now give each individual account and public chats multiple unique usernames in addition to a standard one.

Additionally, users can sell them or buy them through the recently unveiled site Fragment, which is safeguarded by the TON network that Telegram built internally. These names cannot be more than 5 characters in length.

 The most recent update also includes 12 new emoji packs, some created especially for Halloween, that are only available to Premium subscribers. A fresh effect for swiping left to reply has also been implemented, along with some small design tweaks like flickering placeholder chat bubbles when conversations are loading.

Telegram apologized for the upgrade’s delayed release and noted that “Apple took two weeks to review the update.” Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, in a post, revealed, “Apple claims they review apps within 24 hours, but, in our experience, it takes at least 7-10 days for any meaningful product update to reach the App Store.”

Durov has previously accused Apple of delaying upgrades for weeks and blocking the option for iOS users to generate pay-to-view posts because of Apple’s strict App Store policies. This isn’t the first time Durov has publicly attacked Apple.

Telegram Faces Major DDoS Attack; Claims China is Behind it

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Telegram, one of the most secure encrypted messaging service took it to Twitter, Today, to reveal that it was dealing with and has recovered from a powerful DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on Wednesday. The company tweeted that the users in the U.S. and the other countries may face issues in the connection, due to the attack.

Telegram
Image Source: fortune.com

On Wednesday, the platform was hit by DDoS, and it took down the app for over an hour. While dealing with the attack, the company even went to Twitter to explain to its 200 million users how the attack works.

Telegram tweeted through its official account, “A DDoS is a “Distributed Denial of Service attack”: your servers get GADZILLIONS of garbage requests which stop them from processing legitimate requests. Imagine that an army of lemmings just jumped the queue at McDonald’s in front of you – and each is ordering a whopper.” The company stated in the next tweet, “The server is busy telling the whopper lemmings they came to the wrong place – but there are so many of them that the server can’t even see you to try and take your order.”

The company also Tweeted about how the attackers accomplish a DDoS attack, and then, it also confirmed that users that the users’ data is safe.

The company has been the main target of countries like Russia, Iran and Indonesia, providing the reason that the app has been used to encourage terrorism and political protestors. These companies even blocked the service for a long time. But this time, Telegram has clearly indicated that the attack has come from China.

The CEO of the company, Pavel Durov, tweeted, “IP addresses coming mostly from China. Historically, all state actor-sized DDoS (200-400 Gb/s of junk) we experienced coincided in time with protests in Hong Kong (coordinated on @telegram). This case was not an exception.”

The protesters in Hong Kong are protesting in response to the law that gives China the authority under the “one country, two systems” principle, through which it can extradite its citizens to China. According to the sources, these protesters used Telegram for communication, and even, the Telegram group administrator had been arrested in Hong Kong claiming that he conspired to commit public nuisance.

Telegram’s ICO Token Is Finally Open for Public Sale

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Telegram, the famous and most secured chat app, will be organising a sale for its crypto token, ‘Gram’, open for its retail investors through a limited listing. The sale will be carried out prior to a full public sale to be hosted by the company in coming October, starting from July 10.

gram token from telegram
Image Source: news.bitcoin.com

Telegram has previously hosted a massive token sale in the month of February and March in 2018, where it raised a record-high $1.7 billion, despite the sale being limited only to accredited investors. It was the biggest fundraiser organised by a crypto token offering. The fundraiser was to support the development of the Telegram Open Network (TON), a blockchain project that was targetted to decentralise the operations, including file sharing, carried out through digital communication on Telegram.

The sale will go live on the crypto exchange Liquid and is a limited offering. According to the Gram sale page on Liquid’s website, the sale is open globally, except for nations, including the U.S., Korea and Japan, due to some security issues. Though the investors can buy the tokens in exchange for the U.S. dollars or the USDC stable coin.

The website also states that the sold tokens won’t be tradeable as soon they are sold. “The tokens being sold will not be released until after TON goes live (mainnet release), in accordance with the delivery schedule. Purchasers will not be able to transfer, withdraw, or trade the Grams before they are released.” says the gram sale page on the Liquid website.

Telegram has not revealed on the cost and the number of the tokens to be sold. But it has revealed that it will disclose the number of tokens held by Gram Asia. Gram Asia is a Korea based organization, which claims to hold the biggest share of the Gram tokens in Asia.

The company has not commented on the news yet, and an unofficial TON channel has requested the investors to wait for the piece of official information from Telegram.

Pavel Durov : The Founder of Hack-Proof Messenger App Telegram

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A believer of no government and a pure vegetarian, Pavel Durov is a Russian entrepreneur, who was among the most promising Northern European leader under 30, in 2014. He is leading a life on his own rules. Known as the Russian Mark Zuckerberg, Durov surely is inspired by the same and has a few similarities with the life of the American entrepreneur. Pavel Durov, who founded the social media platforms, Vkontakte, the most visited websites in some Eurasian countries (2017), and Telegram, is working towards protecting the users’ data from governmental data requests.

Early Life

Durov was born on 10 October 1984, in St. Petersburg, Russia, to Valery Semenovich Durov and Albina Durova. His father is a Doctor of Philological Sciences, and his grandfather Semyon Petrovich Tulyakov participated in the second World War. His brother Nikolai Durov is a mathematician and a programmer, who later, co-founded Telegram and VK, with Pavel Durov.

Pavel spent most of his childhood in Turin, Italy, where he attended the Italian elementary school. In 2001, the family returned to Russia, and he joined the Academy Gymnasium, in St. Petersburg. He became inclined towards programming languages while in school. After completing the school, Pavel went to the Saint Petersburg State University and earned a degree in Philology.

Career Rise with Vkontakte

Soon after Durov completed his college, he started working on a social media network, as he was inspired by the success of Facebook. He named his project as Vkontakte and started the beta testing of the same, in September 2006. Just after a month, he bought the domain for Vkontakte and opened the registrations to the website for the students of the Saint Petersburg State University.

Pavel Durov
Image Source: eyerys.com

Early in the next year, the website registered more than 100000 users and became the second largest social networking website, in Russia. The rapid growth of the platform, brought a trio of Russian-Israeli investors, Vyacheslav Mirilashvili and Lev Leviev, to invest in the website, acquiring 60%, 10%, and 10% stakes in the company, respectively. Later, the 39.99% shares were acquired by Mail.ru Group. By the year 2014, the Mail.ru Group was able to acquire 52% of the shares in the Vkontakte.

After losing most of his shares, Durov faced a lot of trouble in maintaining his position in the company. He received offers from the few of the political parties of Russia to sell the data of the Vkontakte users, to them. But, he never accepted. In fact, in 2012, he was asked to remove the groups, from Vkontakte, that were protesting against the Russian President Vladimir Putin, but again he denied. At that time he emerged as a libertarian hero for the dedicated protesting groups.

On 1 April 2014, as an April Fool prank, Durov presented his resign in front of the board members of Vkontakte. But, he got caught into his own prank, when, on 21 April 2014, he got dismissed from his post. The reason behind his dismissal was that he failed to withdraw his resignation, within the fixed time.

Founding Telegram

According to Durov, his resignation and getting out of the company was a result of his resistance from sharing the user’s data with the political parties. During the same time, he was working on a secret project. He had started working on the project early in 2012, with his brother, Nikolai Durov, who was the lead programmer of the project. Pavel Durov financed the project and had launched it in August 2013, as Telegram. After his dismissal from his company, he flew to Buffalo, New York, where he established his secret company. He also took some of his Vkontakte employees with him, to New York to continue working on Telegram.

After moving to New York, he also obtained the citizenship of Saint Kitts and Nevis, through donating $250,000 to the country’s Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation. He implanted his employees in various parts of the world, due to the complicated documentation formalities for each of his employees. Basically, controls the working of his company from his secret office in New York.

Telegram was an instant hit, as the app did not allow any third party to use the data of the Telegram users. Also, the secret chat feature of the app does not have any cloud backup. The success of the app can be measured from the 200 million monthly active users reported at the beginning of 2018, and a 50 per cent rise in the annual profits of the company in 2017.

In 2017, with 23-page white paper and a detailed 132-page technical paper, Durov launched a blockchain platform, named as Telegram Open Network (TON). Reportedly, the ICO raised $1.7 billion in April 2018.

Personal Life

Pavel Durov calls himself a libertarian and is living a private life. His past life was filled with a number of controversies and politics. Hence, he maintains his life as private as possible. He, also, never discloses the address to his secret office, established in New York, to avoid influencers from the media and government. Allegedly, he along with his brother, migrates to different places after a certain period of time, in self-imposed exile.