Lee Jun-seok, the Reform Party's general election campaign chairman, launched legal action Monday after a fake image manipulated by artificial intelligence (AI) to make the party's election poster appear in Chinese spread online ahead of the June 3 local elections.
"We have immediately filed a complaint with the National Election Commission against the person who fed a Reform Party candidate's poster into AI, converted it into Chinese, and posted the false claim that 'the candidate is distributing posters in Chinese,' as well as all those who spread it through sharing and other means," Lee said on Facebook.
The social media post he shared included a Chinese-language web flyer image in the format of an election poster, featuring the Reform Party's signature orange color and the number "4," which represents the candidate's ballot order.
"We will pursue criminal prosecution without leniency against everyone who spread it, even those who simply pressed the share button on social media," Lee said. "Given that the post has already been exposed to more than 200,000 people, the penalties will be severe."
Under the current Public Official Election Act, producing, editing, or distributing images or videos that are difficult to distinguish from reality using AI technology is prohibited from 90 days before an election.
