The digital misogyny pipeline: deepfake-based sexual violence in South Korean schools and universities

While digital sex crimes are not unique to South Korea, their prevalence and severity have drawn significant domestic and international attention. The 2024 ‘deepfake porn’ scandal revealed that male students at hundreds of schools and universities created Telegram channels to produce and share synthetic explicit videos of female teachers, classmates, and family members. Many victims and perpetrators were minors.Through an analysis of mass and social media discourses surrounding the scandal, this paper finds that digital misogyny lies at the centre of this dystopian development. It operates as a multidirectional ecosystem rather than the work of isolated ‘manfluencers’. This ecosystem encompasses male-dominated online communities that generate and monetize narratives of male grievance, politicians who amplify these narratives and fuel their offline spillover, and authorities who deflect responsibility by placing the burden of intervention on female students and teachers.