Acting Prosecutor General Koo Ja-hyun Vows Tough Response to Election Offenders Spreading Fake News

[The Financial News] With local elections scheduled for June 3, acting Prosecutor General Koo Ja-hyun issued a stern warning on Thursday, declaring, "We will mobilize every possible measure to respond strictly to election offenders who spread fake news."
Koo, representing the prosecution, made these remarks on the 26th while attending a government-level meeting of relevant ministers convened to respond to fake news produced by abusing artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies.
He noted, "By revising the Public Official Election Act, we created new penalty provisions for campaign activities using deepfake videos during a certain period before elections, and for spreading false information without indicating that the video is a deepfake. These provisions have been in effect since January 2024," adding, "There are now fewer than 100 days left until the 9th nationwide local elections, which will be held simultaneously across the country."
He went on, "Given the rapid development of AI technology and the shift of election campaigning to online platforms and media, we are concerned that election crimes using fake news will surge as election day approaches," and emphasized, "Smear campaigns and the dissemination of false information are extremely serious election crimes, as they provide voters with misleading information and directly undermine their ability to make fair and informed choices."
Koo stated, "For these local elections, we are seeing a marked increase not only in offenders spreading false information but also in those involved in bribery compared with previous local elections," adding, "The prosecution is responding firmly by designating as key targets for enforcement not only fake news, the spread of false information, and smear campaigns, but also election-related bribery, illegal election interference by public officials, and election-related acts of violence."
Since January, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office of the Republic of Korea (SPO) has set up dedicated election investigation teams at prosecutors' offices nationwide and activated an emergency contact system, making every effort to respond to election-related offenses.

hwlee@fnnews.com Lee Hwan-joo Reporter