KULAI, April 9 — A 16-year-old boy was arrested yesterday on suspicion of selling deepfake pornography, allegedly superimposing the faces of real women and girls onto bodies without their knowledge or consent.
The suspect, a secondary school student, allegedly used social media platforms to sell these deepfake images to the public.
Johor police chief Datuk M. Kumar said the investigation was triggered after an 18-year-old woman filed a police report, claiming that her face had been used in pornographic images widely circulated on social media.
“Following this, a team from the Kulai district police commercial crime division was quickly assigned to investigate the case,” Kumar said in a statement today.
Kumar said police then tracked down and arrested the teen suspect in the Kulai district at 5pm yesterday. Authorities seized the suspect’s mobile phone, which they believe was used to edit and upload the obscene photos before distributing them online.
“Initial investigations showed that the suspect used artificial intelligence (AI) to superimpose the victim’s face onto pornographic images, sourced from the victim’s social media account,” Kumar said, adding that the suspect sold the edited images for RM2 each.
The suspect has been remanded for four days, from today until Saturday, to assist with further investigations.
Kumar said eight additional victims have since come forward, reporting similar incidents related to the suspect’s deepfake activities.
The case is being investigated under Section 292 of the Penal Code for selling and distributing obscene material and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 for wrongful use of network facilities.
Kumar urged the public to refrain from distributing the images to avoid interfering with the ongoing investigation.
He also appealed to other victims of similar cases to come forward and file a report at the nearest police station.