The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by a Taiwanese YouTuber and upheld his five-year prison sentence by a lower court for creating non-consensual deepfake pornography featuring the likenesses of real individuals.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court said there was no error in the sentence handed down by the High Court in Chu Yu-chen’s (朱玉宸) second trial last year, adding that the verdict was justified based on solid evidence.
Chu, who goes by Xiaoyu (小玉) on YouTube, was found guilty in July 2022 by the New Taipei City District Court of contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) for editing the likenesses of 119 individuals, including politicians and social media influencers, into pornographic videos.
Photo: CNA
He, along with his assistant Chuang Hsin-jui (莊炘睿), made more than NT$10 million (US$308,518) from distributing the videos, court documents said.
Chu was given a five-and-a-half-year sentence, while Chuang received three years and eight months, but both were commutable to a fine.
An appeal was filed by prosecutors, who argued that the sentence was too lenient. as they could each pay a fine in lieu of jail time.
In December last year, the High Court revoked the original sentence and revised Chu’s imprisonment to five years, which cannot be commuted to a fine.
Using the likeness of individuals to create deepfake porn videos for public viewing not only tarnishes their reputation, but also harms their mental health, the Supreme Court ruled.
Chu will have to serve an additional 20 months in prison if he is unable to pay a fine after the high court imposed sentencing enhancements.
Meanwhile, the high court at the time also increased Chuang’s sentence to four-and-a-half years, commutable to a fine.
Chu and Chuang subsequently filed an appeal against the verdicts, but the original verdicts were upheld by the Supreme Court on Wednesday and its decision is final.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
RSS